48 THE QUEENS COURIER • LIVING IN BAYSIDE • MAY 11, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM Little Neck - Douglaston Memorial Day Parade honors Gold Star Mother, vets In 1927, local residents in Little Neck and Douglaston had a parade on Memorial Day, to remember those who served and died in the Great War to end all wars. They have marched every year since. To mark the 90th anniversary of what has become the largest Memorial Day parade in the nation, organizers will observe the centennial of U.S. entry into World War I and also celebrate the 70th birthday of the United States Air Force (USAF). “We’re honoring an Air Force general, a commissioner for Veterans Affairs, four local World War II veterans, and a mother whose son made the ultimate sacrifice as Marshals,” said J. Douglas Montgomery, co-chair of the non-profit parade association. The Grand Marshal for the parade, Terrance C. Holliday, headed the Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs and is a retired USAF Lieutenant Colonel. The 2017 Little Neck-Douglaston Memorial Day parade will honor (clockwise from top left): Grand Marshal Terrance C. Halliday; Honorary Grand Marshals Kathryn T. Cross and Air Force Gen. Edward W. Thomas, Jr.; and four WW II veterans, Parade Marshals Jack Stollak, Joe Revman, Bernard Rader and Jeanette Rosen. Courtesy LNDMemorialDay.Org The parade named two Honorary Grand Marshals: Brigadier General Edward W. Thomas, Jr., USAF, and Gold Star Mother Kathryn T. Cross. Gen. Thomas works in the Pentagon office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Cross is active in both the parade and the national association comprised of women who share the terrible distinction of losing a child in the service of our country. Her son, a Navy Seal, was killed in Iraq. The parade’s four traditional “Division” Marshals – three World War II combat vets and an Army nurse – are Jack Stollak, Joe Revman, Bernard Rader and Jeanette Rosen. Rosen managed to get her commission as an Army nurse, despite a disability that kept her stateside, treating combat veterans who were shipped home with severe injuries. Rader had the uncertain fate of being a war prisoner of the Nazis… and Jewish. He was part of the only prisoner exchange of the war. Revman and his bomber crewmates nearly didn’t survive their 25th and final mission over Germany, when their stricken plane crashed before it could reach their home airfield. Stollak served from shortly after D-Day through the end of the war with the famed 30th Infantry Division, “Old Hickory.” The parade will step off at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 29th from the corner of Northern Blvd. and Jayson Ave. – which is actually in Great Neck. It proceeds west to the Divine Wisdom Academy schoolyard on Northern Blvd., between Alameda Ave. and 245th St. in Douglaston. Parade volunteers serve free refreshments, including the traditional hotdogs, to participants and audience alike. After a brief closing ceremony, there will be a free concert by the USAF Blue Aces rock band in the schoolyard. For more information about all the honorees and the full weekend of traditional parade-sponsored events, visit www.lndmemorialday.org
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