An ‘unprecedented’ Memorial Day at Calverton National Cemetery

It was a Memorial Day unlike any other since Calverton National Cemetery held its first Memorial Day ceremony 42 years ago.

There were no veterans groups, no music, no audience under the overcast sky early this morning.

The brief, low-key ceremony took place not in the assembly area where the crowd gathers each year to remember and honor the nation’s deceased military members, but on the edge of section 21, set against a backdrop of row upon row of marble headstones as far as the eye could see.

Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Randy Reeves was on hand for the ceremony at Calverton National, which he called “the epicenter of this crisis we’ve been going through.”

The nation’s busiest national cemetery, which happens to serve the area of the country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic, has been averaging 50 funerals a day since the outbreak reached its peak in mid-April, Calverton National Cemetery executive director Michael Piscerno said. The more than 2,500 burials at Calverton in the past six to eight weeks is “unprecedented,” Piscerno said.

“They have set the example here at Calverton, here in New York, for all of us and for that we are thankful,” Reeves said.

“As Americans, we are so fortunate to enjoy the freedom that is given to us by the incredible sacrifice of the men and women who gave their lives for us,” Reeves said.

“I strongly believe the incredible resilience and the perseverance exhibited by our nation’s people throughout this pandemic is the most tangible and fitting tribute to the heroes that we seek to honor today,” he said.

“Our mission in the National Cemetery Administration is very simple. It is to ensure that no veteran ever dies,” Reeves said. “It is said we die two deaths. We die the first time when breath leaves us. But we only truly die some time in the future when no one speaks our name or tells our story,” Reeves said.

“On this Memorial Day we are here to speak their names and tell their stories.”

The undersecretary spoke about two local heroes: Navy corpsman Jeffrey Weiner, who was killed in Iraq in 2005 and Vietnam veteran Frank Casano, a retired respiratory therapist who answered the call to help care for the sick during the coronavirus crisis. Casano became ill with the virus himself and died April 14 at age 71.

“Today it is our solemn obligation to do one really important thing and that is to remember,” Reeves said.

“This is a Memorial Day like none other,” Rep. Lee Zeldin said,. “But our resolve to honor them, our emotions in reflecting on them, our strongest desire to celebrate them and never forget them never waivers, no matter what the circumstances are,” Zeldin said.

The congressman thanked the individuals who went to Calverton this weekend to place flags on some headstones, after the National Cemetery Administration canceled group flag placement events at 142 national cemeteries across the country due to the pandemic.

“I think that really says a lot about the spirit of Long Islanders and our love for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms and for the the ability to live in what is the greatest nation in the world,” Zeldin said.

The ceremony was livestreamed on the Calverton National Cemetery’s Facebook page.