Twenty-one years after his younger brother served as grand marshal of the Rockville Centre Memorial Day parade, retired Army Reserve Colonel Ed Casazza will lead the village’s 2026 ceremony — continuing a family tradition rooted in military service, remembrance and community involvement.
Casazza, a retired Army Reserve colonel and longtime member of American Legion Post 303 in Rockville Centre, follows his younger brother, Paul, who served as grand marshal in 2005 shortly after returning from Afghanistan. The honor marks another chapter in a family legacy of military service that spans generations.
Both brothers built distinguished military careers while remaining active in supporting veterans through Post 303. Ed Casazza retired after 30 years in the Army Reserve, while Paul, a 36-year village resident, served 25 years before retiring as a lieutenant colonel.
Both men also graduated from the U.S. Army War College, continuing a military tradition that began with their father, Edward, a World War II veteran, and grandfather Jerome, who served during World War I.
“It is an honor, absolutely,” Ed Casazza said. “It’s Memorial Day, so it’s an opportunity to salute those veterans that really never came back. So, it’s quite an honor, I think.”
Ed Casazza, a 66-year-old East Rockaway resident, said sharing the distinction with his brother makes the moment even more meaningful.
“I think it’s quite an honor,” he said. “We’re both members of the same post, so I think it says a lot for the post. The post is well known in the village because we do a lot of events and community service.”
Francis X. Murray said the selection reflects both Casazza’s military career and the significance of the village’s annual remembrance ceremony.
“Each year, our Memorial Day Parade stands as a powerful reminder of the courage and sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service to our country,” Murray said in a statement. “We are proud to honor Ed Casazza as this year’s Grand Marshal, continuing a meaningful family legacy of service and remembrance, as his brother once led this very parade.”
The parade will kick off at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 25. It will begin in the parking lot between North Centre and North Village avenues and proceed down Maple Avenue toward the John A. Anderson Recreation Center at 111 N. Oceanside Road, where a memorial ceremony will follow.
Paul Casazza, , said he was proud to see his older brother receive the same recognition more than two decades after leading the parade himself.
“He had a distinguished military career and stuff, so when we help out veterans, it’s the purpose of the American Legion,” Paul Casazza said. “When we select our grand marshals, we try and get people that have had a distinguished military career and help veterans.”
For Ed Casazza, Memorial Day is less about celebration and more about honoring sacrifice.
“At the very end, when we do the gun salute, we read names and do that type of thing,” he said. “There’s a large participation of folks from the village that come out there to be part of that.”
