By Julianne Mosher
On Veterans Day last week, the American Legion Wilson Ritch Post 432 of Port Jefferson Station honored those who served.
During a ceremony on Nov. 11, veterans young and old gathered in the Town of Brookhaven parking lot across from Port Jefferson Village Hall.
With an opening prayer, members of the legion held a moment of silence for the lives lost serving our country.
Linda Metcalf, president of the ladies auxiliary, said that on Veterans Day remembering those who served has a larger purpose.
“We have moved forward a unity of purpose which made us stronger — forget pettiness, egotism and pride,” she said during the event.
The group was joined by elected officials from town and state governments, including Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) and state Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket).
“This is the day of thanksgiving to the men and women who put their lives on hold,” Englebright said. “You have supported our freedom, you have made possible our quality of life, our way of life.”
Veterans Day – which commemorates the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day – honors veterans of all wars.
In 1941, the U.S. government had purchased Mr. Vanderbilt’s Sikorsky amphibious plane for wartime duty. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the horrific destruction of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sought Mr. Vanderbilt’s support to help defend the nation.
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