TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON, N.J.—Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer Jeffrey Siconolfi is grand marshal for the 2019 Washington Township Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 27.
The parade will progress from Clinton Avenue and Washington Avenue to Memorial Park at Town Hall, where the ceremony will take place.
Siconolfi grew up in the township and attended Washington Elementary School and Westwood Jr./Sr. High School.
He left the school in November 1972, received his GED from Bergen Community College, and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy.
After basic training in Orlando, Florida he completed training as a sonar technician in Key West and San Diego. He was deployed to the USS William M. Wood (DD-715), whose home port was Athens, Greece, where he participated in operations in the Black Sea, in Cyprus, and in Lebanon.
In May 1975, the William M. Wood was ordered to stand by to rescue the crew of the USS Mayaguez, which had been seized by North Korea, in the last official battle of the Vietnam War.
During his career, he was assigned to USS Tattnall (DDG-19), USS John Rodgers (DD-983), and USS Comte de Grasse (DD-974), making numerous deployments supporting operations throughout the world.
Siconolfi’s shore duty assignments were as an instructor of anti-submarine warfare operations and maintenance at Combat Systems Technical Schools Command, Mare Island, California, and the Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego.
While on active duty he earned a bachelor’s degree in electronic technology and a master’s degree in operations management.
Upon his retirement, in November 1989, Siconolfi continued his service to the Navy as a civilian employee of the Space and Naval Warfare System Center in San Diego, designing, developing, and testing the new Naval anti-submarine warfare and communications systems.
In 2001 he moved back to his hometown to help his father, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
He continued his service to the Navy on an on-call basis until 2012, visiting ships and submarines to teach sailors anti-submarine warfare mathematical models.
Siconolfi is a member of the Washington Township Fire Department and VFW Post 6192, and was a crossing guard at Jessie F. George Elementary School.
He and his wife, Mary Timpanaro, whom he met at his 30-year high school reunion, live in the township.