A siren wailed for 50 seconds at noon in Monument Park as Glen Cove joined Nassau County in a solemn moment of silence on Memorial Day, pausing to remember the nation’s fallen service members. The city’s ceremony paid tribute to local hero Sgt. William (Billy) Joseph Morse, who was killed in action in Vietnam in 1968, and honored Navy veteran Anthony (Tony) Jimenez as grand marshal of this year’s parade.
“We in Glen Cove commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms,” said City Councilwoman Marsha Silverman, who co-chaired the Memorial Day Committee and served as master of ceremonies. “Each year, this committee selects two honorees. The grand marshal of the parade, who is a Glen Cove veteran, who continues to give back and serve the community after their service to our country has ended. And, probably more importantly, each year we select a parade honoree who is a Glen Cover who died in war, making the ultimate sacrifice for the rest of us.”
John Morse, Billy Morse’s younger brother, shared memories of growing up in Glen Cove and looking up to his brother. “John Morse was 9 years old when his cool big brother, Billie, used to let him jump in his car with his football buddies when they went to the ‘Campus’ Shop,” the ceremony program read.
John recalled how Billy “always talked baseball stats and players” and played catch with fellow Glen Cover, famous Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford.
“John remembered how he responded to challenge, uncertainty, even danger,” the program read. “So, at a time when many young men were poring over maps to Canada or talking with their dads about bone spurs and doctors, Billie knew he was going to answer his country’s call.”
Two years later, that connection was shattered when a 13-year-old John and his mother learned of Billy’s death. A military sedan out of which stepped the Army Casualty Officer and the Chaplain presented a grief from which Mrs. Morse never recovered — one that scared a vulnerable John with a pain that has punctuated his whole life.
Retired U.S. Marine Major Fred Nielson spoke of the deeper meaning of the day’s observances. “Picnics, barbecues, parades, car-selling promotions — every retailer telling us how much they honor our war dead by offering the living price cuts,” he said. “How fitting that might be for Veterans Day. I will not rail against it today because it has become ingrained in our culture. Mine, however, is a deeper message, one that calls upon each of us to consider, at a spiritual level, how we might hearken to a meaning that abides in all of us as a community, as heads of families, and most profoundly as individuals.”
He urged those in attendance to remember the cost of freedom. “A sacrifice of their hopes for the future. Their dreams of loving and being loved. Their imaginings of holding their newborn. How do we equate the significance of what happiness they sacrificed forever to the happiness that we know daily? Our war dead have done their part. Your weapon in this democracy is … your vote.”
Mayor Pamela Panzenbeck added that Memorial Day is not just another day on the calendar. She noted it is a time for remembrance, reflection and gratitude.
“Today we pause in our very busy lives to say we remember, we honor, we will never forget.” Panzenbeck added. “To the families carrying the weight of loss every day, we may never fully grasp your grief, but we see you, we thank you and we remember alongside you.”
Glen Cove High School junior Benjamin Napolitano gave the city’s first-ever Rho Kappa Memorial Day address, reflecting on how “our everyday privileges and indulgences, our existence is protected by the actions of our soldiers.” Napolitano said, “It is just respecting and acknowledging the valiant service of those who gave. The purpose of Memorial Day is to honor the ultimate sacrifice given by our veterans. The sacrifice made in the moments of their solemn oath to defend and preserve our Constitution.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi echoed those sentiments by reminding the audience that soldiers who died in battle are just like the loved ones they left behind.
“Men and women who didn’t come back to the dinner table. Who didn’t have their first love, or their marriage, or their business, or their children. Because they gave it up for us,” Suozzi said
County Executive Bruce Blakeman summed it up simply: “Say a prayer for them,” he said of the war dead. “For their souls, for their families.”
