NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City honored the nation's heroes with the 102nd Annual Veterans Day Parade along Fifth Avenue on Thursday.
The event began at 11 a.m. with a solemn wreath-laying ceremony at the Eternal Light Flag Staff in Madison Square Park, followed by a 21-gun salute and "Taps."
The parade, which was a largely virtual affair last year due to the pandemic, stepped off at around noon on 25th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Thousands of veterans and military members representing every service branch and generation since World War II participated.
This year's parade featured 200 marching units and marks the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, as well as the 30th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm.
The parade's Grand Marshal is Air Force veteran Kevin Carrick, a retired Senior Master Sergeant who served for over two decades as an elite Pararescueman with the 106th Rescue Wing based in Westhampton, Long Island.
Mayor Bill de Blasio attended the wreath-laying ceremony before delivering remarks and marching in the parade, which Gov. Kathy Hochul also attended.
A commemorative wreath was laid in the Hudson River in honor of former members of the USS Intrepid during a ceremony at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum on the West Side at 3:30 p.m.
On Long Island, the Nassau and Suffolk Police Benevolent associations, along with the Nassau County Police Detective's Association and the Nassau County Police Superior Officers Association, hosted food drives at three supermarkets to benefit veterans facing hunger and food insecurity.
In New Rochelle, the American Legion recognized one of its own, 100-year-old Leroy Fadem, who is among the oldest living World War II veterans.
Fadem was a recent college graduate when he decided to enlist in the Navy just after Pearl Harbor was attacked.
"I did what I had to do, because I wanted to do it. And I was never afraid because you have a feeling of comradery on a ship," he said. "I just knew I had to serve."
Fadem served as an officer in the Pacific and had been studying for a CPA when he decided to enlist.
"It changed my entire life and after that I was not just a little acountant anymore," said Fadem, who received five battle stars after heavy combat. "Thank God I survived it without any, really, serious injury."
On this Veterans Day, he is thinking of his colleagues who are long gone.
"Sopranos" star Vincent Pastore, also a Navy veteran from New Rochelle, attended the ceremony that honored Fadem and other servicemembers.
"I came out of the service and had a whole perspective on what I could do with my life," Pastore said.
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy will take part in a ceremony at the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Holmdel.
In Connecticut, Gov. Ned Lamont will participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the State Veterans Cemetery in Middletown.
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