Several hundred people attended Memorial Day ceremonies at Calverton National Cemetery this afternoon, marking the 39th annual such ceremony at the nation’s busiest national cemetery.
The event is sponsored each year by the Support Committee at Calverton National Cemetery and includes participation by nearly two dozen military and support organizations.
Calverton National Cemetery executive director Michael Picerno reminded those in attendance that the nation makes a lifelong commitment to every soldier it puts in harm’s way. He said he was at the Veterans Administration in Northport last week and there was a discussion about what date the Vietnam War ended.
“I turned to a Vietnam vet and asked him — When did it end for you? He said it hasn’t,” Picerno said. “That’s an extremely powerful message to all of us.”
Rep. Lee Zeldin said every time he returns to Calverton Nation Cemetery it is “a deeply humbling and sobering experience — seeing the hundreds of thousands of graves and recognizing that the people interred there “were serving on behalf of the greatest nation in the entire world, with a burden they welcomed to defend our freedoms and liberties at all costs,” he said.
“Our red, white and blue flags were in their veins,” he said.
Zeldin noted that this year Memorial Day is “especially difficult for some of our local families,” referencing the deaths of four airmen attached to the 106th Rescue. It’s difficult for their families because this wound is only a couple of months long,” he said.
“Only one nation is the greatest nation on earth and that’s where we get to live because of their sacrifice,” Zeldin said.
The keynote speaker was Col. Dennis Sullivan, senior Army advisor to the president of the Naval War College. He told the crowd that anything the survivors of war may do pales in comparison to the ultimate sacrifice made by the nation’s fallen men and women.
“We must honor their memory,” Sullivan said. “We must honor the fallen but we must also care for the living — as our fallen brothers and sisters would want us to. It is our nation’s solemn duty and it is our duty.”
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl, who also contributed reporting.
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