Memorial Day: Local ceremonies, parades honor fallen servicemen and women

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Tuesday, May 31, 2022

Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum hosts Memorial Day ceremony

Chantee Lans reports hundreds of veterans and active members of the military were on hand as service members unfurled a 100-foot American flag.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Communities across the Tri-State region today are honoring service members who gave their lives for their country.

In New York City, Memorial Day observances included the annual gathering at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum on Manhattan's West Side.

Hundreds of veterans and active members of the military were on hand as service members unfurled a 100-foot American flag.

The event included an aircraft flyover.

NYC Mayor Eric Adams was among the officials addressing those on hand.

Candace McCowan reports the 9/11 ceremony honored not just the rescue, recovery and relief workers who died that day but those who are sick and have died since then.

LOWER MANHATTAN

Meantime in Lower Manhattan, it was a different type of memorial observance.

Monday marked 20 years since the formal end of rescue and recovery operations at the site of the September 11th attacks.

Participants honored not just the rescue, recovery, and relief workers who died that day but the many who are sick and have died since then from 9/11 related illnesses.

An honor guard with members of the NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority Police and the New York City Department of Sanitation took part in the ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial Glade.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was in attendance as well.

QUEENS

NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NY Governor Kathy Hochul were among those marching in the Douglaston-Little Neck Memorial Day Parade.

The 90-plus-year-old parade, which was canceled amid the pandemic, started off. at Jayson Avenue and Northern Boulevard.

Elected officials joined veterans groups and other community members to march down Northern Boulevard along a one-mile course.

The event ended with refreshments and a brief closing ceremony at the Divine Wisdom Catholic Academy parking lot in Douglaston on 245th Street.

Sandra Bookman has more from Little Neck.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY

A Memorial Day tradition resumed in Westchester County.

The Chappaqua Memorial Day Parade stepped off at 11 a.m. following a ceremony at the Victory Corners monument.

Two of Chappaqua's best-known residents - former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton - were among those on hand.

The event wrapped up with a ceremony at Memorial Plaza near the Chappaqua train station.

A Memorial Day tradition resumed in Westchester County.

LONG ISLAND

In Nassau County, Executive Bruce A. Blakeman joined Massapequa residents to observe the first-ever county-wide Moment of Silence in honor of Memorial Day.

Residents were being asked to pause for 50 seconds at 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. - including pulling their cars over to the side of the road if safe to do so - to honor the nation's fallen heroes.

Every fire house, and emergency service vehicle in the county were asked to sound their sirens and horns, every church in the Diocese of Rockville Centre to ring their bells, and the Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) transit service agreed to pause its bus service for 50 seconds - all at those times.

NEW JERSEY

After a two-year absence due to the pandemic, the annual Tri-Boro Memorial Day Parade kicked off at 10:30 a.m. from West Grand Avenue in Montvale.

The parade route: Kinderkamack Road to Park Avenue in Park Ridge; left onto Pascack Road; then continuing to the finish line in Woodcliff Lake at Borough Hall.

Ceremonies were held in each of the three towns ahead of the parade.