Lights of Peace October 2025 Honoree CPL Dennis Marote WWII Veteran
During the month of October, the 73rd Lights for Peace flag to fly at the Fort Taber – Fort Rodman Military Museum honors the memory of CPL Dennis O. Marote of New Bedford who served in the United States Army Air Corps, the U.S. Air Force and the Army National Guard.
Marote was born in Falmouth, MA on March 26, 1929, the son of the late Gabriel Olin Marote and Mary (Perry) Marote. He resided at 23 Potter St. in S. Dartmouth, MA for most of his childhood and moved to 4 Briggs Ct., New Bedford in 1946.
At the age of seventeen, “Denny,” as he was known, changed his birth certificate to read 1928 instead of 1929, so that he could enlist in the military. On March 27, 1946, he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps and was stationed at Fort Deven, MA.
While in the military, he received his GED and graduated from Aerial photography and Aerial Gunnery School. Using his artistic skills, he designed the unit patch for the 62nd Fighter Squadron. Marote’s military occupation specialty was listed as “aircraft and engine mechanic.”
The 62nd Fighter Squadron was “reactivated on 1 May 1946 as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) escort fighter group, being assigned to Fifteen Air Force at Selfridge Field, Michigan, equipped with long-range North American P-51H Mustangs,” according to Wikipedia.
The mission of the squadron “was to provide fighter escort of SAC’s Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers on intercontinental strategic bombardment missions, deploying to Alaska and Europe.”
On Sept. 18, 1947, the Army Air Forces and Air Corps was abolished and the United States Air Force was established. Marote was then transferred to the U.S. Air Force.
Marote’s wife explained that in 1948, Dennis and his outfit were fortunate enough to be extras in the movie, Fighter Squadron, a World War II aviation war film from Warner Bros. starring Edmond O’Brien, Robert Stack, and John Rodney.
Then in1949, Marote took part in “Operation Haylift,” assisting in trying to save millions of cattle snowbound during a blizzard. According to Nabraskastudies.org, “Just as the Nebraska economy was settling down after the war, the blizzard of 1948-49 hit. Its magnitude staggers the imagination. It was the worst blizzard in recorded history. The snow
stopped trains, buried houses, and threatened nearly a million head of cattle. Operation Haylift was a massive, perhaps desperate, effort to save livestock.
To feed stranded livestock, the Air Force launched Operation Hayride, better known as Operation Haylift, using C-47 and C-82 cargo planes. Along with the crew on each flight was a spotter, as well as Air Force and civilian “kickers”, whose job was to shove the hay out the open cargo doors of the aircraft. Kickers were kept from falling out by straps secured to a bulkhead. The spotter was a civilian familiar with the area, who guided the pilot to the ranch in need.
Volunteers arranged fifty four drops totaling about 240 tons of hay. The Haylift program coordinated by the Chamber of Commerce dropped 1,854 bales to twenty nine local ranchers.”
During his service, Marote participated in guarding Hangar 18 at the Roswald Army Airfield in New Mexico. According to history.com, “The legend of Hangar 18 goes back to the supposed crash of a UFO in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947,” according to a press release issued by the Roswell Army Airfield (RAAF) at that time. “Their personnel inspected the ‘flying disc’ and sent it on to higher headquarters.” A subsequent press release from an Air Force base in Fort Worth, Texas, “claimed the disc was a weather balloon—a claim the Air Force acknowledged was untrue in 1994, admitting it had been testing a surveillance device designed to fly over nuclear research sites in the Soviet Union.”
According to his wife, Marote also participated in maneuvers in Area 51, which refers to a restricted area in the Nevada Desert where a United States Air Force base conducts secret missions. “Members of the public are kept away by warning signs, electronic surveillance and armed guards. The facility is next to two other restricted military areas: the Nevada Test Site, where US nuclear weapons were tested from the 1950s to the 1990s, and the Nevada Test and Training Range,” as stated by BBC.com
Cpl Marote was honorably discharged from active duty on March 26, 1949, receiving the WWII Victory Medal and the Good Conduct Medal. He then joined the National Guard where he was assigned to the Headquarters Battery, 212th Field Artillery Battalion.
Marote married Aurora Ferreira, in 1949 and moved to 51 Bonney St. in New Bedford. While in the National Guard, he attended the Swaine School of Design in New Bedford. He was discharged from the National Guard on March 5, 1951, due to a physical disability.
Dennis and his wife had two boys, Dennis Jr., and Alan who were both raised in New Bedford.
Marote was employed by Reynolds Dewalt Printing as the Art Director and later worked as the Art Director for Baker Printers. Then in 1984, he started his own graphic arts business, earning many artist awards for his talent, until his passing in 1992.
Dennis Olin Marote’s relatives include his wife Aurora, son Alan and his wife Kitsy of Orlando, FL; daughter-in-law Debbie Marote of E. Taunton; granddaughter, Erica Marote, great-grandchildren Christopher (C.J.) Marote and Danielle Marote, and sister, Juliette Cordiero of the Azores.
He was the father of the late Dennis Marote, Jr. and the brother of the late Olga Lemos, Serafin Marote and Gabriel Marote.
