Calverton National Veterans Day ceremonies came close to being nixed by Washington politics

Calverton National Cemetery’s 36th annual Veterans Day ceremony was well-attended Monday afternoon. The crowd of several hundred gathered on the cemetery’s pristine, sunlit lawn heard the master of ceremonies, Dennis L. Krulder, say how the event almost didn’t happen this year.

“I received a call a couple of weeks ago, just before this Veterans Day ceremony, when we were in the planning stages, and because of the government shutdown, if the government shutdown lasted another three or four days, we would not have a ceremony today,” said Krulder, commander of the Northport chapter of Disabled American Veterans and president of the Calverton National Cemetery Support Committee. “This is appalling to me.”

Krulder said it was “unconscionable” that the ceremony could be called off due to politics. He told the crowd a message needs to be sent to officials in Washington, D.C. that such a result is unacceptable.

Krulder spoke emphatically, but with measured tone.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years. Never, never in the 30 years that I’ve been involved with veterans’ issues or veterans’ ceremonies did I ever see or hear that our ceremony would be threatened, that we would not be able to be here today to honor those who were given a blank check and was asked to sign this – sign this blank check – up to and including one’s life. And we signed it, willingly, and then we have people who sit down in Washington and say, ‘You know what, I don’t like this bill, so we’re gonna shut down the government and we’re gonna tell veterans and we’re gonna tell everybody else – senior citizens, we don’t care – we’re gonna do what we wanna do,'” Krulder said.

“No. We need to tell them: you work for us, and you will do what we want done.”

The seated crowd responded with applause.

“I didn’t want to bring up a negative,” he continued, “but I just felt that it was something that needed to be said. It needed to be said because the American people need to know how close we came to not being able to celebrate Veterans Day because somebody wanted to take their ball and go home.”

Krulder’s remarks came before Congressman Tim Bishop’s address.

“I think that’s called setting the table,” said Bishop once he stepped to the microphone. He departed from his prepared statements to follow up on Krulder’s comments, saying there is a gap between the values demonstrated by members of the military and the way many in government carry out their duties.

“What we ought to be doing, I think, is incorporating into our daily lives – and not just us in Washington, but all of us as a collective – the values that are demonstrated each and every day by those who serve in the armed forces and those who are veterans…We don’t have to be as brave as those who serve in the armed forces or veterans, we don’t have to be as skilled, we don’t have to be as courageous, but we can be as selfless,” Bishop said.

The real way to honor veterans, he said, is to emulate them.

“And what that means for those of us who are involved in public policy is coming together and finding common ground, and trusting one another, and recognizing what the stakes are if we don’t do the right thing, because that’s what members of the armed forces do each and every day,” he said.

Bishop returned to the regular program to present members of Calverton Cub Scout Troop 404 with the military merit badges they earned recently. He said the boys earned the badges by participating in a flag retirement ceremony using proper procedures, adopting a local veterans service organization and performing a service project for it, and adopting an active duty service member as a pen pal.

Michael Picerno, director of the Calverton National Cemetery, spoke about the importance of offering veterans returning from deployments opportunities to continue serving their communities. He noted the immaculate condition of the cemetery’s grounds, commending the veterans hired to maintain them.

Other speakers included Joe Sledge, public affairs officer for the Veterans Affairs Northport Medical Center, Edward Lee of the Port Jefferson Elks Lodge, Riverhead Town Councilman John Dunleavy and Rabbi Paul Swerdlow, Lt. Col. United States Air Force (Ret.)

The National Anthem and God Bless America were sung by Kathleen Ryan and taps were played by Greg Efimetz of the North Shore Community Band.

RiverheadLOCAL photos by Micah Danney
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