It\u2019s a patriotic display with pageantry three times over.<\/p>\n
The Big Apple will be celebrating a historic 250 years of military service in the US Tuesday \u2013 honoring a trio of trailblazing grand marshals at the 106th annual Veterans Day Parade.<\/p>\n
The commemoration, considered to be the nation\u2019s largest Veterans Day tribute, will honor grand marshals from the Army, Navy and Marine Corps \u2014 including once-stranded NASA astronaut and retired Navy Capt. Sunita \u201cSuni\u201d Williams.<\/a><\/p>\n The Big Apple will be celebrating a historic 250 years of military service in the US \u2013 and its three original service branches that predate the nation\u2019s existence. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n \u201cThe 250th anniversary \u2026 really ties us back to the beginning of the nation: this is when the Revolutionary War started,\u201d said Mark Otto, executive director of the United War Veterans Council, which organizes the parade each year.<\/p>\n The parade will honor grand marshals from the centuries-old Army, Navy and Marine Corps branches, including once-stranded NASA astronaut and retired Navy Capt. Sunita \u201cSuni\u201d Williams. Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cThis is when America was but a dream, and it was just people coming together and forming our military branches that actually won our freedom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Veterans who served in military operations and wars dating back to World War II will be represented, Otto said. <\/p>\n The tribute will descend on Manhattan streets with over 150 vehicles and 20,000 marchers. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just a parade, it\u2019s a multi-generation veterans\u2019 reunion every year,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n Performances will include the Doughboy Foundation\u2019s 16-piece American Expeditionary Forces Headquarters marching band \u2014 recreating the World War I military orchestra that later became the US Army Band.<\/p>\n Other grand marshals include former US Army calvary scout and Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha \u2014 he returned his medal to the US 4th Infantry Division, claiming others at the Battle of Kamdesh against the Taliban were more deserving \u2014 and Stephen Peck, who served as a Marine officer in the Vietnam War and led the nation\u2019s largest veterans services nonprofit, US VETS, for 28 years.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a hero. I served my country, and when I came back I struggled,\u201d grand marshal Stephen Peck told The Post. United War Veterans Council<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve had a democracy that\u2019s been protected by our armed forces for 250 years \u2013 and I think that\u2019s worth remembering, because people don\u2019t always understand or remember,\u201d said Peck, son of famed actor Gregory Peck, who has devoted his life to preventing veteran homelessness.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t consider myself a hero. I served my country, and when I came back I struggled,\u201d he told The Post.\u00a0\u201cVeterans, whether they serve in combat or \u2026 stateside or abroad, pay a price. They leave their families behind. <\/p>\n \u201cThey put their lives at risk, and those burdens are not always easy to release.\u201d<\/p>\n Medal of Honor recipient Clinton Romesha returned his medal to the US 4th Infantry Divison, saying that others at the Battle of Kamdesh against Taliban forces were more deserving than him. The White House<\/p>\n During his three-decade tenure at US VETS, Peck championed veterans\u2019 services \u2014 addressing mental health crises, substance abuse and unemployment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s always too little money in mental health and employment services,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n There are currently 30,000 homeless veterans in the US, down from 240,000 three decades ago, he said. And while \u201cwe\u2019ve made real progress \u2026 the veterans who are still out there still need our help.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d Peck explained. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made real progress, but the veterans who are still out there still need our help,\u201d Peck said. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n The advocate contends that remembering vets \u2013 as the Big Apple does with its parade \u2013 and supporting them from deployment back to civilian life is critical.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s good to put that message out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The rain or shine event will be live streamed on Fox 5 NY<\/a> and the FOX LOCAL<\/a> app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a patriotic display with pageantry three times over. The Big Apple will be celebrating a historic 250…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[75,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,273,58,1979,20958],"class_list":["post-35545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-manhattan","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-parades","tag-us-news","tag-veterans","tag-veterans-day-parade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}