Veterans on parade
It was a “Star-Spangled Banner” day for New York’s veterans.
Thousands of people paraded up Fifth Avenue on Saturday and Gov. Cuomo announced legislation poised to improve health care and other services for the more than 200,000 vets who live in the city and the 770,000 who reside elsewhere in the state.
The governor’s package includes adding post-traumatic stress disorder as a qualifying condition in the state’s medical-marijuana program and providing combat veterans employed by the state with additional days of paid leave to obtain health services, counseling and access to other benefits.
“Our veterans risked their lives in order to defend the ideals and principles that this nation was founded upon and it is our duty to do everything we can to support them when they return home,” Cuomo said.
Mayor de Blasio, meanwhile, gushed that he was “totally starstruck” Saturday when he met the charismatic astronaut, parade grand marshal and “icon” Buzz Aldrin.
The 87-year-old Aldrin, whose audacious outfit included a red, white and blue tie with red striped socks, served in the Air Force and was the second man on the moon, piloting the Apollo 11 and following Neil Armstrong onto the lunar surface in 1969. The Air Force’s highest-ranking woman, Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, also attended the pre-parade ceremony.
Aldrin noted he was once a “little boy across the river” from Montclair, NJ, and he’s been “so lucky in my life so many times.”
World War II veterans rode in a float, with one former soldier holding a sign that read “Thank you for remembering.” A man dressed as a sailor and a woman in a nurse’s uniform re-enacted the famous V-J Day kiss photo.
“We are so proud to be a city where over 200,000 veterans live, veterans who have answered the call of duty and have traveled to the ends of the globe to protect liberty at home and abroad,” de Blasio said.
Staged by the United War Veterans Council, the city Veterans Day Parade is the nation’s largest. This year’s featured service was the United States Air Force, with this year’s theme marking the centennial of America’s entry into World War I.
“It’s great that this country recognizes all the sacrifices and the dedication that individuals made at such a young age to take the oath of the military, commit a few years of their life to support this country,” said paradegoer Joseph Mandello, 62, a Vietnam veteran and chairman for the Bronx Borough President Veteran Advisory Council.
Cuomo, who marched in the parade but didn’t speak at the preevent ceremony, said, “There are a number of ceremonies, everybody participates in the way that they find appropriate.”
As for his working with de Blasio, Cuomo said, “I’m very pleased with the work that’s going on by the state and the city.”