In tribute to veterans, the flags of the five U.S. military branches (Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Coast Guard) adorn the front entrance of Queens Borough Hall (Photo: Queens Borough Presidents Office)
May 19, 2020 By Christian Murray
The Queens Borough President and Queens District Attorney will be hosting a virtual Memorial Day Observance Ceremony on Thursday.
The ceremony, which will be live streamed at www.queensbp.org , will start at 11 a.m. and the public is invited to view.
“Queens is eternally grateful to the women and men in the Armed Forces who served and perished in defense of our lives and our freedoms,” said Acting Borough President Lee in a statement. “Although the extraordinary nature of these times has cancelled the slate of Memorial Day events across Queens, not even a pandemic will stop us from this annual, united observance in honor of those – and their families – who made the ultimate sacrifice.”
The ceremony will feature remarks from Lee and Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz delivered from the Veterans Memorial Garden at Queens Borough Hall. The FDNY Ceremonial Unit will present and retire the nation’s colors.
Flotilla Staff Officer Barbara Wighton of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Band will perform “Taps” on a bugle in memory of the fallen. Rabbi Eli Blokh of the Chabad of Rego Park will deliver the invocation, while Pastor Courtney Brown of Upper Room International Ministries in Far Rockaway will deliver the benediction.
The ceremony will also feature a live wreath-laying by Vietnam Veterans of America President John Rowan, representing Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 32, at the Queens Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Elmhurst Park — the first Memorial Day since its opening in December 2019. The memorial honors the 371 Queens service members who died during the Vietnam War or are classified as “missing in action.
“Our world is a very different place today with our norms turned upside down during this pandemic,” District Attorney Katz said in a statement. “But it is still so important to acknowledge the heroes that have kept us safe and protected our freedoms.”
Lee and Katz will be laying wreaths across the borough in the next few days with various Queens organizations at the following locations:
- Broad Channel Park in Broad Channel with the Broad Channel Memorial Day Parade Committee
- Coleman Square in Howard Beach
- Doughboy Park in Woodside
- Flagpole at Bell Boulevard and 53rd Avenue in Bayside with the Bayside Hills Civic Association
- Glendale Veterans Triangle in Glendale with the Allied Veterans Committee of Ridgewood and Glendale NY, Inc.
- Maspeth Memorial Square in Maspeth with the United Veterans and Fraternal Organizations of Maspeth, Inc.
- Myrtle Avenue Clemens Triangle in Ridgewood with the Allied Veterans Committee of Ridgewood and Glendale NY, Inc.
- Poppenhusen Triangle in College Point with the College Point Citizens for Memorial Day, Inc.
- Remsen Family Cemetery in Forest Hills
- Veterans’ Circle in Rockaway Park with the American Legion Daniel M. O’Connell Post 272 Memorial Day Parade Committee
- Veterans Memorial Triangle in Laurelton with the Laurelton Memorial Day Parade Committee
- Veterans Monument and Flagpole in Little Neck with the Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day Parade Association, Inc.
- Veteran’s Square in Rosedale with the Rosedale Civic Association Memorial Day Parade Committee
- Whitestone Veterans Memorial in Whitestone with the Whitestone Veterans Memorial Day Parade Committee
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