Copyright New York Post
It’s a patriotic display with pageantry three times over. The Big Apple will be celebrating a historic 250 years of military service in the US Tuesday – honoring a trio of trailblazing grand marshals at the 106th annual Veterans Day Parade. The commemoration, considered to be the nation’s largest Veterans Day tribute, will honor grand marshals from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps — including once-stranded NASA astronaut and retired Navy Capt. Sunita “Suni” Williams. “The 250th anniversary … really ties us back to the beginning of the nation: this is when the Revolutionary War started,” said Mark Otto, executive director of the United War Veterans Council, which organizes the parade each year. “This is when America was but a dream, and it was just people coming together and forming our military branches that actually won our freedom.” The tribute will descend on Manhattan streets with more than 150 vehicles and 20,000 marchers, featuring thousands of former service members as well as hundreds of volunteers, veteran support groups and foreign allies from France, Germany, England and beyond. Veterans who served in military operations and wars dating back to World War II will be represented, Otto said. “It’s not just a parade, it’s a multi-generation veterans’ reunion every year,” he added. Performances will include the Doughboy Foundation’s 16-piece American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters marching band — recreating the World War I military orchestra that later became the US Army Band. Other grand marshals include former US Army calvary scout and Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha — he returned his medal to the US 4th Infantry Division, claiming others at the Battle of Kamdesh against the Taliban were more deserving — and Stephen Peck, who served as a Marine officer in the Vietnam War and led the nation’s largest veterans services nonprofit, US VETS, for 28 years. “We’ve had a democracy that’s been protected by our armed forces for 250 years – and I think that’s worth remembering, because people don’t always understand or remember,” said Peck, son of famed actor Gregory Peck, who has devoted his life to preventing veteran homelessness. “I don’t consider myself a hero. I served my country, and when I came back I struggled,” he told The Post. “Veterans, whether they serve in combat or … stateside or abroad, pay a price. They leave their families behind. “They put their lives at risk, and those burdens are not always easy to release.” During his three-decade tenure at US VETS, Peck championed veterans’ services — addressing mental health crises, substance abuse and unemployment. “There’s always too little money in mental health and employment services,” he said. There are currently 30,000 homeless veterans in the US, down from 240,000 three decades ago, he said. And while “we’ve made real progress … the veterans who are still out there still need our help.” “We still need more permanent housing for them, more counseling and employment assistance so that we can help them really live the best quality of life,” Peck explained. The advocate contends that remembering vets – as the Big Apple does with its parade – and supporting them from deployment back to civilian life is critical. “I think it’s good to put that message out there,” he said. The parade will kick off at 12:30 p.m. in the Flatiron District on 26th and Fifth Avenue and proceed north to 47th Street.
