By Alexis Algazy and Kevin Coughlin
In a morning that was both solemn and celebratory, Morris Plains on Saturday marked the Memorial Day Weekend with wreaths and words for the fallen, and a colorful parade for the living.
Two F-16 fighters from the Air National Guard roared overhead — a surprise addition to festivities that included 100 units in the line of march–and a ceremony in Roberts Garden added a timely reminder of the cost of freedom, from a Ukrainian Catholic priest.
“There are no days or nights in Ukraine, and the war is not measured by time. The only thing is, you live or you die,” the Rev. Stepan Bilyk of Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in Whippany said in his invocation, quoting a soldier defending his homeland against Russian invaders.
Slideshow photos by Jeff Sovelove. Click/hover on images for captions:
Brigadier General William M. Boruff, commander of Picatinny Arsenal, spoke movingly of Vietnam Veterans, who included his father.
Boruff had special praise for more than 700 nurses who died during that war. Poignantly, he cited the story of a veteran who sends flowers every year to the family of one such nurse who saved his life.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (C-11th Dist.), a Navy veteran, stopped to converse with Walter Ness, a World War II vet who turns 102 in November.
On Memorial Day, “I think about the people who didn’t return home, and how much we owe them,” Sherrill said.
She joined speakers from the VFW in urging everyone to pause from their barbecues Monday at 3 pm, to reflect on the supreme sacrifices of so many — more than a million U.S. servicemen and woman over the nation’s history, said Morris Plains Mayor Jason Karr–that have kept us free.
“Our presence here is in solemn commemoration of all these men and women, and an expression of our tribute to their devotion to duty,” said John Titteran, commander of Morris Plains VFW 3401 and its Auxiliary.
Air Force veteran Phillip Wilks, a borough firefighter for 50 years, was honored as parade Grand Marshal.
Dignitaries on hand included borough council members, the Morris County board of commissioners, Morris Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll and Sheriff James Gannon.
Wreaths were arrayed around a symbolic grave by borough police and firefighters, Little Leaguers and Scouts. The flag was lowered to half-staff. A firing squad from Morris Plains VFW Post 3401 and Denville American Legion Post 390 delivered a volley of rifle shots.
Buglers Christopher Ruiz and Anthony Samms of the Morristown High School Marching Colonials played Taps, and the Morris Plains Borough School performed God Bless America.
ROBOTS AND TORNADOES
The parade that followed–the borough’s 36th annual edition, and Morris County’s largest for this holiday–had a generational flavor.
Betsy McKeever, director of the Morris Plains Co-op Play School, remembered when her kids marched in the parade. Now she brings nursery schoolers.
“We’ve been doing this for 20 years or more…because as pre-schoolers, they can understand that the soldiers help keep us safe.”
And, they have fun.
Slideshow photos by Dave Sullivan. Click/hover on images for captions:
There was plenty of that on Saturday, thanks to Shriners in go-karts, clowns, a seven-foot-tall Mega Robot, bagpipes and banjos and ukuleles, Clydesdales, Wild West floats, the Orange High School Marching Tornadoes, Uncle Sam (former Mayor Frank Dreutzler), and an Idaho Potato Truck.
These were just a few of the attractions that sauntered past emcee Larry Ripley’s reviewing stand on Speedwell Avenue moments before the heavens unleashed a deluge of Biblical proportions.
It takes many volunteers to make all this happen.
One of them, 11-year-old Christian Osborne, was back for his second year performing the unsung-yet-vital task of following horses with a shovel and rolling trash can. What possessed him to return for this duty?
“My dad signed me up,” Osborne said.
While he’s mastered this craft (“Pick up poop, fast!”), it’s not his calling. “I want to be a police officer,” he said.
Videos by Jeff Sovelove and Kevin Coughlin for MorristownGreen.com. Click top right icon to toggle through playlist:
At the VFW on Route 53, Donna Ramirez and Cathy Keating of the Auxiliary handed out free hot dogs (1,700 were prepared), and shared their canopy with waterlogged marchers.
Amidst baby strollers and drummers and beer queues in the VFW pavilion, parade Chairman Steve Welsh looked pleased, and relieved.
“The best parade ever,” he said.
It narrowly beat the thunderstorms. (Though it may be time to retire “It Never Rains in Morris Plains” as a borough motto.)
On Friday, Welsh learned the F-16s were coming. He had been sweating that since February; he got some help from a former military aviator, Congresswoman Sherrill.
According to Mayor Karr, this Jersey Devils 119th Spider Squadron, based in Atlantic City, was the last to leave Afghanistan when U.S. troops pulled out last year.
And Welsh was heartened by the contingent from the Ukrainian church.
“Their presence made the whole parade worthwhile,” he said.
Slideshow photos by Kevin Coughlin. Click/hover on images for captions:
Morristown Green was honored once again to march in this parade. Our thanks to photo sharpshooters Jeff Sovelove and Dave Sullivan and correspondent Alexis Algazy for their time and talent, and to our indefatigable, weatherproof, musical marching crew: Beth, Bob, Mark, Jennifer, Kathy and Kai.