Veterans Day on Long Island: Ceremonies, service and visiting graves of relatives

Long Islanders observed Veterans Day on Monday at community centers, houses of worship and cemeteries, in traditional ceremonies and through service.

More than 81,000 veterans live in Nassau and Suffolk counties, giving the area one of the largest veteran populations in the country.

Attendees at an event held in the gym at Sid Jacobson Jewish Community Center in East Hills packed toiletry kits for homeless veterans: shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, toothpaste, mouthwash, a razor and soap.

Each kit was to be placed in a duffel bag with other items like underwear, socks and T-shirts and distributed to homeless veterans by nonprofit General Needs, said Susan Sherman, cofounder and vice president.

About 100 homeless veterans lived on Long Island in 2023, Newsday has reported.

In the gym, Tony Hsiao, 39, of Port Washington, packed kits with his 9-year-old daughter, Lauren. Her maternal grandfather served in the Navy, and Hsiao said he hoped the event would give her a sense of what it meant to work for the greater good.

Lauren, writing thank you notes with friends at a table equipped with colored markers and construction paper, said she had packed several kits.

"They’re giving care to us and helping our community, so we should ... help them too and give the same respect," she said.

Eugene "Gene" Bloom, 89, a medic stationed in Germany during the Korean War and a JCC member, stopped by the gym. "The good work that they're doing, it's just amazing," he said. "It's wonderful for this country to still remember its veterans and I’m very honored."

Susan Berman, associate executive director of community engagement of the JCC, said she hoped Monday’s event would mean more attention is paid to homeless veterans year-round.

"It’s a population that we just don’t think about," Berman said. "We serve the homeless and we serve mothers who just had babies, and we serve other vulnerable communities, but we don't always put veterans into that cohort."

At the Hand-Aldrich Post 924 American Legion in Hampton Bays, attendees celebrated the nation's female veterans, along with new renovations and an infusion of younger members that post leadership said were helping buck a nationwide trend of declining numbers for veterans' associations. 

Second Vice Commander Jackie McKay, an Air Force veteran who served during the Cold War, shared the history of the nation’s female veterans, calling them "America’s best kept secret." 

"Women have had a difficult road, but they persevered and got the job done," McKay said. "In addition to the stresses of military life, they’ve had to deal with prejudice, sexual assault, depression, PTSD, divorce and medical issues."

After the Veterans Day ceremony, post officials dedicated a new ground-level addition to their building.

"Our disabled veterans can get down here, come back to the post and start utilizing the facility again," said Post Commander George Hand, who served the Navy from 1983 to 2008. "We have people here today that haven’t been here in a long time because they can’t get down the stairs."

The new addition will be called the James V. Papandrea Atrium. Twenty-three members of the Papandrea family attended Monday to honor the Marine Corps veteran who served during World War II. Past post commander Rich Steiber, who choked up while presenting the plaque that will soon hang on a newly erected wall to Papandrea’s sons and daughters, described the active legion member of 60 years who died in 2018 as "the salt of the Earth" and "like a father to me."

"It was an honor to know him," said Steiber, who served the Navy from 1974 to 1996. When he pondered for whom the legion should name its new space, "Jimmy was the only one who came to mind."

A commemorative brunch at St. Paul AME Church in Rockville Centre, organized by the Lakeview branch of the NAACP, honored Black veterans. 

"It’s an honor to be recognized by your community," said Raymond Adams, 80, a Vietnam veteran from Jamaica, Queens.

Lawrence Hyler, who lives in Lakeview and was drafted into the Army in 1969, said the event "means a lot because I had a lot of friends who didn’t make it back."

The program included a reading of a poem that paid tribute to Black veterans and the singing of "Lift Every Voice and Sing," often referred to as the Black national anthem.

Some veterans talked about the racism they and their predecessors faced in the military.

Army veteran James Macklin highlighted the plights of his father, grandfather and other Black military members. "This country never recognized" their service enough while they were living, said Macklin, 71, who lives on the Shinnecock reservation.

Still, attendees said, the military benefited those who served. "You’re going to come out with a whole lot of education, things that you’re going to be able to use for the rest of your life," said Adams, who has two grandson who are veterans.

At Calverton National Cemetery in Wading River, a large American flag rose from half to full mast as Monday’s ceremony began. The crowd of 300 included representatives of veterans’ groups and the North Shore Community Band, which played songs representing each branch of the armed forces.

It is "imperative" for the nation to unite behind those who served after "a very contentious election season," cemetery executive director Anne Ellis told a crowd that included Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine and other elected officials. "It is our duty and our privilege to do everything in our power to thank them, to care for them, to honor them."

Among the attendees was a retired New York City public school teacher, Della Smith, 70, who has since 1981 driven out from Brooklyn to the cemetery to visit the graves of relatives.

They are her brother, peacetime Army veteran Earl Smith, and two uncles — Army veteran Juan Smith, who served in the Korean War, and Jimmy Rowser, a Marine who served the Vietnam War.

At each grave site, Smith said her family would pray, sing religious songs and catch the interred up on the latest family news.

"I’m proud of their service," Smith said. "I just want them to know that they’re not forgotten."

Correction: Julian Wissner-Goldman of Roslyn Heights participated in a service project for Veterans Day in East Hills. A caption in an earlier version of this story had the wrong name.