Long Beach hosts Memorial Day parade

The streets of Long Beach rumbled with the sounds of drummers playing military beats and bagpipers performing "The Marines' Hymn" as Sgt. Alfred Palmieri led the city's Memorial Day parade under a cloudless sky on Monday.

With a blue sash reading "Grand Marshal" draped over his gray fatigues as he sat atop the backseat of a convertible, Palmieri waved to the applauding spectators who lined the parade route, from West Beech Street in the West End to City Hall at West Park Avenue, and they in turn waved the Stars and Stripes.

"It was fun and there were a lot of people," said Palmieri, a staff sergeant in the Army 3rd Brigade who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and is stationed in Ft. Hood, Texas. "It was a little overwhelming because I didn't know who to wave to. I tried to wave to everybody."

Palmieri was the city's first veteran of a post-9/11 military conflict to be named the parade's grand marshal. He first marched in the parade as a first-grader at Long Beach Catholic Regional School.

Among the young people who participated in Monday's parade were Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and students from Long Beach's various public and parochial schools, who marched alongside veterans, firefighters, police officers and members of more than 50 organizations around town, from the Lions Club to the Ancient Order of Hibernians. An estimated 5,000 marchers took part.

"We gather here today to honor the more than one million men and women of our armed forces who have given their lives since 1775 so that we might live in freedom," Howard Kalachman, a Vietnam veteran and commander at the Long Beach American Legion, told the crowd that gathered outside City Hall for the post-parade ceremony. "They did not ask for much, but we are here today to give them the gratitude of a grateful nation."

After Long Beach High School student Russell Goetz sang "America the Beautiful," other speakers included Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, Long Beach Police Department Commissioner Thomas Sofield and Nassau County Legislator Denise Ford. Like Kalachman, most speakers reminded parade-goers of the meaning of Memorial Day, imploring them to remember and honor the fallen military men and women who died in defense of America.