IT’S JUST NOT ‘RITE’
● Vets’ funeral honors fall victim to COVID rules ● 9 tales of heroes who’ve died during pandemic
Because these veterans died during the pandemic, they have been laid to rest without the full honors they deserve from a grateful nation.
A 10-car motorcade followed the hearse carrying Vietnam veteran Vincent Panettieri to his final resting place at Long Island National Cemetery.
The procession pulled through the grounds’ wrought iron gates and came to a sudden halt. Then the hearse moved forward alone.
It was as far as Panettieri’s family was allowed to go.
Graveside services had been indefinitely postponed in late March due to the coronavirus pandemic — meaning that Panettieri, 77, a U.S. Army servfrom Oakdale, L.I., would not receive a sendoff fit for a veteran and be buried without his loved ones present.
“We followed him to the cemetery and that was it. We had to turn around,” said his daughter Anne Marie Stahurski of Oakdale, who wanted to hear the trumpets play taps and watch an honor guard fold the American flag for her father at his April 28 funeral.
“It’s not fair,” she said. “It’s not what he deserved. But under the circumstances, it was the best we could do.”
Panettieri, who died of coronavirus three days shy of his 78th birthday, is one of more than 500 veterans interred at Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale and Calverton National Cemetery in Suffolk County since April 13 without the customary military honors.
The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department, which runs the national cemeteries, put a pause on committal services beginning March 23 due to COVID-19, said VA spokesman Les Melnyk.
The VA began publishing the names of veterans April 12 on its Roll of Honor to commemorate those buried without ceremonial rights. Thirtyeight of those veterans were interred at Long Island National Cemetery, and 480 were buried at Calverton National Cemetery between April 13 and May 21.
Nearly 1,300 people have been buried at both locations since March 23.
“All VA national cemeteries remain open and continue to provide interments for veterans and eligible individuals,” Melnyk said. “Committal services are temporarily discontinued for safety reasons during this national emergency.”
“[The] VA is offering all families the option to postpone interments or proceed with them and conduct a memorial serviceman
ice at a later date,” he added.
Memorial Day parades across the five boroughs were canceled in April due to the pandemic. Gov. Cuomo announced last week that ceremonies would be limited to gatherings of 10 or fewer attendees, and small vehicle-only parades would be permitted.
“It’s an important tradition,” Cuomo said of the Memorial Day tributes. “Many people lost their lives. This is important to many, many families all across this state and nation. It’s important that the veterans be recognized. I think we can do it and do it safely.”
Calverton National Cemetery will host Memorial Day observances Monday, includ-ing a wreath-laying ceremony, a moment of silence and the playing of taps. The event is not open to the public, but will be livestreamed on the cemetery’s Facebook page.
Stahurski said Panettieri graduated from Teterboro School of Aeronautics in New Jersey before completing his Air Force training in air traffic control operations in 1967. Her father then enlisted in the Army and was stationed at Fort Rucker, Ala., before heading off to Vietnam.
While abroad, his parents — Italian immigrants from Brooklyn who owned supermarkets — sent him sauce and noodles to make lasagna for the troops.
“I don’t know how it worked, but that was the story he told,” Stahurski said.
Three years later, Panettieri returned from the war to work at LaGuardia Airport as an air traffic controller. He later retired from the U.S. Postal Service.
The father of three — who often wore his Vietnam veteran ball cap out on the town — was buried next to his wife, Peggy.
“He was proud to have served,” said Stahurski, who was by her dad’s side when he died. “He had a great life.”