Over a year into the pandemic, the 2021 Memorial Day service at Woodlawn Cemetery was almost a return to normalcy with Mitch Rose, president and CEO of the cemetery, saying this year, he “called in the marines.”

 

For the first time, the New York City Department of Veteran Services (DVS) were invited to participate in the event, and were also invited to bring some friends.

This year’s ceremony at Woodlawn, located at 3800 Jerome Avenue, was held on Saturday, May 29, and the cemetery partnered with DVS and the Bob Woodruff Foundation in hosting the event. It was well attended by local elected officials, local veterans, and their family members, as well as members of the NYPD and young members of the 46th and 52nd Precinct Explorers Program.

 

Special guests included DVS Commissioner James Hendon, as well as Rear Admiral Charles Rock, Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic, and Craig Newmark of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, who donates the American flags each year.

Referring to the veterans, Rose told the rather large, post-pandemic crowd of about 200, “It’s up to us to not only tell their stories, but to honor their service and memory by paying respect to them on Memorial Day, and I have to say at a cemetery.”

 

He added, “It is the palace to be on Memorial Day. There’s no place that’s more important on this day than at a cemetery.”

The ceremony also kicked off a pop-up exhibit of the DVS Veterans Voices Project, a collection of oral histories by various New York City veterans who have served from World War II to current conflicts.

 

The exhibit, which now contains 50 stories of local veterans, will be on display at Woodlawn through the summer of 2021.

Norwood News recently reported on the hundreds of thousands of veterans who have received other-than-honorable (OTH) discharges, many for misconduct related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).

 

Many veterans don’t realize that they may be eligible for a discharge upgrade, if the evidence shows they experienced service-related trauma.