Making way for veterans today
Several Manhattan streets will be closed for hours Saturday morning for the Big Apple’s 104th Veterans Day Parade — the largest of its kind in the nation.
The mile-long parade — to honor the men and women who have served our country — is slated to kick off at 9:30 a.m. and continue through 12:30 p.m.
This year’s commemoration boasts 20,000 marchers, 25 floats, over 150 vehicles and 280 marching units and will run along Fifth Avenue from East 26th Street to East 47th Street, according to the parade’s website.
The event can be viewed live on WABC and will be livestreamed.
The parade will be led by this year’s grand marshal , Michael Linnington, an Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran who served in the military for 35 years, holding positions including deputy commanding general at Fort Benning, Ga., and commandant of cadets at West Point and in Kabul, Afghanistan.
He is also CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project.
Locals and tourists can expect closures along the route, including spots where the parade will form on 24th and 25th streets between Sixth and Fifth avenues; 26th to 29th streets between Sixth and Madison avenues; Fifth Avenue between 23rd Street and 26th Street; Broadway between 23rd Street and 26th Street; and along the route, according to the Department of Transportation.
There could also be traffic interruptions around 45th Street between Madison and Sixth avenues.
Gov. Hochul announced Friday that every November will be Veterans Month in the Empire State.
The governor also announced new initiatives, including a grant program to improve veterans services around the state.
For Michael Linnington, serving as grand marshal of Saturday’s New York Veterans Day Parade is distinctly personal — because of a shared 9/11 history.
The CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project was inside the Pentagon in Washington, DC, when American Airlines Flight 77 struck, around 45 minutes after the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” recalled Linnington, a retired lieutenant general who served 35 years in the Army. “I just happened to be on the good side of the building that wasn’t hit by the hijackers.”
And while he will lead the parade of 20,000 marchers along Fifth Avenue, between 26th and 47th streets in Manhattan, Linnington, 65, told The Post: “It’s not about me. It’s really about the veterans who serve, and about the 4 million who have served and sacrificed since 9/11.”
Nine months after 9/11, as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Linnington was serving in Afghanistan, where he commanded the Army’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division. He later led the famed Screaming Eagles during Operation Dragon Strike, the initial advance into Iraq in early 2003.
“It was a really tragic time for the country,” Linnington said. “But in the 20 years since then, you know, 4 million young people have said: ‘Take me.’
“And 7,000 have been killed, 56,000 have been wounded, and hundreds of thousands [have] invisible wounds,” Linnington said. “That’s why we do what we do at the Wounded Warrior Project.”
Service, sacrifice
This year marks 20 years since the nonprofit’s founding as an altruistic effort to deliver backpacks to wounded vets at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland.
Today, the Florida-based organization runs longterm rehabilitative programs for vets from its 25 offices nationwide.
Linnington left active duty in 2015 and joined the group a year later, shifting his focus from tracking terrorists to serving severely wounded veterans.
Now the New Jersey native and West Point graduate, who shares two children and three grandchildren with his wife of 42 years, plans to retire as CEO of the nonprofit in early 2024, but is relishing his curtain call to lead veterans from all branches of service through Manhattan.
“I don’t want our country to forget the importance of supporting our veterans,” Linnington said. “It’s critical because when they come home, they need community support to help them transition.
“Kids in high school today weren’t even born when the towers were hit,” he added. “So for them, we have to remind them how important it is to serve and sacrifice.”