Memorial Day Observances

Veterans and dignitaries will be on hand for Monday’s Memorial Day observances in East Hampton and Sag Harbor.

A 9 a.m. ceremony at Main Beach will include a flyover, said Bill Mott, commander of the American Legion Post 419 in Amagansett, which is organizing this year’s event. A parade will follow, beginning at Guild Hall and proceeding to the Hook Mill green. The East Hampton Fire Department and East Hampton Village Ambulance will participate, said Mr. Mott, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, along with members of the local police departments, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. School groups and scout troops will round out the line-up.

Hugh King, East Hampton’s town crier and the East Hampton Village historian, will be the keynote speaker at the green. Mr. King will discuss the town’s monuments to war veterans as well as the histories of the American Legion, the V.F.W., and Decoration Day, as Memorial Day was formerly known.

The year's Memorial Day parade in Sag Harbor will start at the World War I monument at Otter Pond at 9 a.m. on Monday. The parade will stop in front of the Marine Lance Corporal Jordan C. Haerter Memorial Bridge and then continue to Marine Park on Bay Street. Martin Knab, commander of the Chelberg-Battle Post of the American Legion will speak, followed by Roger King, the commander of the Sag Harbor Veterans of Foreign Wars, and James Larocca, a village resident and veteran. 

There will be no Memorial Day parade in Montauk this year. A flag raising will take place on the green on Monday morning at 8 a.m. with members of the Boy and Girl Scouts and Coast Guard officials on hand. Later on Monday, the traditional burning of old, tatered flags will start at sunset.