Local vets to join New York’s big parade

The United War Veterans Council of New York will host the 104th New York City Veterans Day Parade on Saturday, Nov. 11, starting at 9:30 a.m.

This year the council has designated the U.S. Army as the featured military service and has selected Lt. Gen. Mike Linnington (Ret.), the CEO of the Wounded Warrior Project, as the grand marshal.

The parade route is along Fifth Avenue from 26th to 47th Street.

Among the participating units will be a vintage jeep and float jointly sponsored by the American Legion Coffey-Wilson Post No. 688, and the United Military Veterans of Kings County saluting Brooklyn’s veterans of all services. On the float will be Legionnaire Post Commander Lt. Col. Juan Diaz, Air Force veteran Ray Aalbue, chairman of the UMVKC, and honored guest Brig. Gen. Dean P. Thompson, commanding officer of the 353rd Civil Affairs Command, plus a cadre of other veterans.

The holiday was originally called Armistice Day to celebrate the end of World War I, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. In 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower, a former five-star general, changed the observance of Armistice Day to Veterans Day so it would be inclusive of all veterans serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

***

Pinch-hitting for the president of the Society of Old Brooklynites, we were at Brooklyn Borough Hall to preside over the society’s November meeting. The guest speaker was fellow Bay Ridgeite Daniel Johnson, an active mariner and maritime historian. His topic was “A Historical Voyage aboard Brooklyn and NYC Ferryboats.”

Johnson took us on a virtual cruise from the days of the first Fulton steam ferries to the Brooklyn ferries that once departed from the 39th and 69th Street piers to the city’s newest Staten Island Ferry, the Sandy Ground.