Veterans Day Parade Proudly Takes Fifth Avenue: Salute!

Tens of thousands of patriots and friends of the military defied a polar vortex, including largely gray skies and a bone-chilling wind, to line the streets of 5th Avenue from Madison Square Park to 52nd Street for the the 106th annual Veterans Day Parade on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

The date of this event isn’t random: It recognizes the enactment of the Armistice ending World War I (the Great War then) at the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day, of the eleventh month: November 11, 1918.

Despite the inclement conditions, spirits for the event were high, including among the large number of police working the event. Among the many bluecoats spotted were Patrol Borough Manhattan South (PBMS) Chief James McCarthy, a reassuring presence at any large event; PBMS Deputy Chief Timothy Beaudette; an Emergency Service Unit member and his handsome canine partner; and officers from the Counterterrorism and Community Affairs units.

As for the snazzy black leather jackets the NYPD mounted and motorcycle cops wore, this reporter was told they aren’t as warm as they look, so layering up was key.

This year’s grand marshals were retired US Army Staff Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha; Marine veteran and homeless veterans’ advocate Stephen Peck, and NASA astronaut and retired US Navy Captain Sunita “Suni” Williams. Romesha earned his medal from actions during the Battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2009.

Monuments & Moments in Madison Square Park

As per tradition, the parade proper, which began at 12:30 p.m., was preceded by a wreath-laying ceremony in Madison Square Park. Among those present were NYC Emergency Management Commissioner Zach Iscol, a former US Marine officer who won a Bronze Star serving in Iraq; and NYC Veterans’ ServicesCommissioner James Herndon, a 2002 graduate of West Point, who also served seven years in active duty in the Army, including deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Though the wreath laying was done around the Eternal Light Flagstaff, it’s worth noting that Madison Square Park is home to two other military-related monuments. One is for US Navy Admiral David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870), by the renowned sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The other, for Chester Alan Arthur (1830-1886), who, before he became the 21st US President following the Sept. 19, 1881, assassination of President James Garfield, was an abolitionist lawyer and quartermaster general of the New York Militia during the Civil War.

Onward We March

After a female quartet called the Downtown Dames sang the national anthem, Mayor Eric Adams, wearing a blue-and-red FDNY cap and thin black puffer jacket (with stitching representing various city agencies) spoke from a stage erected on Fifth Avenue between 25th and 26th streets.

As he’s done on past occasions, Hizzoner himself riffed on national-anthem themes, first quoting, “the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there,” and then elaborating: “Those bombs could be physical bombs or structures, like what happened on 9/11. It could be bombs of uncertainty, economic devastation, it could be bombs of change, but one thing is for sure, our flag is still here.

“And our flag is still here because of the men and women of our armed services. They dedicate their lives to water the tree of freedom that we all sit under and appreciate.” After breaking his speech to praise Commissioner Herndon, Hizzoner went into his big wind-up.

“There is no place like America; no one is lining our borders to leave America, they line the borders to come in, because this is the greatest country on the globe! May God bless New York, God bless America, God bless our vets, our grand marshals. Marshals, Fifth Avenue is yours! Enjoy the day!”

Having been preceded by a number of leather-clad motorcycle clubs (including the Nam Knights, Blue Knights, Punishers, the Combat Vets Motorcycle Association, and True Reckoning), the main line of march began with Hizzoner, now carrying a paper coffee cup, and his cordon; Ground Zero volunteers and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum carrying a giant American flag.

They were followed by the NYPD Marching Band, behind which phalanx NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch was ensconced. Among those in the crowd who recognized her, Tisch was cheered. The FDNY Emerald Society pipes and drums, the NYC Correction Department, New York State Troopers, and all manner of soldiers and sailors including a multinational squad from NATO; veterans advocacy groups like Wounded Warriors; marching bands, including one from Falun Dafa, the Chinese spiritual exercise group; VFW posts, ethnic veterans (Koreans, Chinese, Ecuadorians, Setalcott Indian Nation), college veterans (St. John’s, Manhattan College, Rutgers, SUNY Maritime), corporate veterans, and the like followed.

Solons and Veterans

The City Council had a small contingent in the parade too, including a friendly Asian woman named Annie holding the right side of the unit’s banner.

Why the Council’s representation at the march was so small is open to speculation. Of the Council’s Committee on Veterans‘ six members, five are Republicans or conservative Democrats. The exception is Panamanian-born Sandy Nurse, from Brooklyn, who, though she’s a member of the Progressive Caucus, is also the daughter of military parents and later worked for the Defense Department herself.

Among other Council members, Gale Brewer is a vocal supporter of the military, and is a regular attendee of Memorial Day and July 4 events.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who lives in civilian housing on Fort Hamilton Army Base in Brooklyn, where public safety is secured by military police, posted a respectful Veterans Day messsage. Though Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani wasn’t at the parade, he did serve food to military veterans in the Bronx.

If this act itself can’t be faulted, it also sidestepped the reality that few among the parade participants were likely to welcome him for his numerous past insults to NYPD and what critics perceive to be his—and the Democratic Socialists of America in general—antisemitism and tolerance for the rhetoric of terror.

That progressive politics aren’t necessarily in contradiction with patriotism was exuberantly belied by a float that looked like it drove in from the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn: that of the Haitian-American veterans, the side of which was emblazoned with the slogan “Fighting for the U.S.A. Since the American Revolution.”