By Brendan Browne
Mayor Michael Bloomberg led marchers in the Forest Hills Memorial Day Parade Sunday in remembrance of the country’s war veterans and victims of the World Trade Center attack.
This year’s Memorial Day was more solemn due to Sept. 11 as the crowds concentrated less on barbecues and picnics and more on the meaning of Memorial Day.
“Of course, every time you see a flag you can’t help but think of Sept. 11,” said Police Officer Roy Rains, who played the trombone in the Police Department’s marching band. “It brought the whole nation together and the parades make people stop and think” about those that have died, he added.
Bloomberg echoed Rains’ sentiments, asking people to remember not only veterans, casualties of war and Sept. 11 victims but also the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, who are protecting freedom around the globe everyday. He said such bravery could defeat terrorism.
“A year ago nobody ever thought the oceans weren’t big enough to protect us,” the mayor said. “We must make sure the terrorists don’t win. America has to have the courage. We have to remember why America was founded and why we have had freedom for 200 odd years.”
According to several celebrators, this year’s turnout at the parade was much larger than normal. Families, store owners, and veterans lined the sidewalks along the Metropolitan Avenue parade route all the way from around Ascan Avenue to the Remsen Cemetery on Trotting Course Lane.
“We have more units than I ever thought possible,” said the parade’s director, Bob Silver, referring to the groups of military personnel marching. “There’s a renewed feeling of patriotism in this country. The battle line has been drawn across Lower Manhattan.”
Marchers included groups like the Boy Scouts, several high school marching bands, bagpipe players from the Corrections Department, and many military officers who arrived in New York Harbor during Fleet Week, to name just a few.
“We pay tribute to the people who are retired and have died,” said one R.O.T.C. student from Fort Hamilton High School in Brooklyn. A Boy Scout, Jordan Levine, said “it’s fun to be part of something like this.”
A Bangladeshi immigrant, who is living in Kansas with a green card, said he enjoyed celebrating the holiday with his sister and brother-in-law and hopes to become a citizen like them. “I feel proud. I can realize their feelings also,” he said.
The parade finished up in the Remsen Cemetery, where wreaths were laid next to the graves of the three Remsen cousins, who lived in the city and died fighting in the Revolutionary War. Such war heroes as Thomas Noonan, who grew up in Forest Hills and died in Vietnam, and Joseph Schaeffer, a World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner, among others, were remembered.
Reach reporter Brendan Browne by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com or by phone at 229-0300, Ext. 155.
