As has been the tradition in East Hampton Village for more than four decades, hundreds of people marched down Main Street on Monday for the Memorial Day parade, which honored military men and women who have been lost in the line of duty since the Civil War.
Starting with the color guard's "left, right, left" commands and patriotic songs played by East Hampton High School's marching band, to the fire departments' bright red trucks and the rainbow of T-shirts worn by Little Leaguers, the sights and sounds made a fitting tribute before the mood took a more solemn turn at the village green.
That's where Staff Sgt. Jeanette Payne of Amagansett dove into a tribute to military service by women, for whom recognition has historically lagged behind the accomplishments and remembrances of their male counterparts.
Sergeant Payne, who enlisted as a combat medic in 2007, was deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2009, and served in the Army until 2016, reminded the crowd that Memorial Day honors the "many great men and women who lost their lives fighting for the liberty we hold so dearly today."
Women, she explained, first began serving in World War I in clerical roles — including as telephone operators — and numbered 11,000 by the end of the war. "Major John Pershing," said Sergeant Payne, "referred to them as 'switchboard soldiers who accepted hazard, without reservation, to serve their country.' At the end of World War I, these brave and talented female soldiers were not considered veterans and were not acknowledged for their contributions, nor were they given any of the benefits as their male counterparts."
That changed in 1979 when Congress officially deemed them veterans, "a point in time that was too late to do most of them any good," Sergeant Payne said.
When Pearl Harbor was attacked, 82 Army nurses in three hospitals triaged and treated more than 2,000 injured men. It led to 350,000 women enlisting to fill almost every non-combat role, and more than 500 women perished in World War II.
Sergeant Payne also raised the critical issue of suicide among veterans. "I came home with every soldier I deployed with," she said. "Over the years that followed, my unit lost four soldiers to suicide." Sadly, according to the United Service Organizations, more than 30,000 soldiers have died by suicide since 2001 — "a statistic we don't often think of, even on a day like today."
"This weekend will not come lightly for many people. It's a weekend of heartache and the reminder of how fragile life is," she said.
She wished safe travels to a colleague of hers, Sgt. 1st Class Charles Glass of Riverhead, a medic who is preparing to be deployed on a mission to provide resources to Africa with the 1st Battalion of the 69th Infantry, based in Manhattan. Sergeant Glass has been marching in the East Hampton parade for 15 years as a tribute to Bill Field and Carl Hettiger, local veterans who supported him through his basic training and ensuing deployment.
"It really boils down to the team. I've been doing this a long time. There's patriotism," he said. "We had an enlisted sergeant-major who used to say you do this for 'cash, country, or college' . . . but really I do it for my teams. They work hard for me, I work hard for them, and they work hard for each other, and there's no greater joy than seeing them be professionals and execute their tasks and their skills as a team to support the rest of our larger team, to support the country."
In his remarks, East Hampton Town Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc reminded the crowd of this nation's "freedoms that are too often taken for granted." He encouraged people to vote in their local, county, state, and national elections, saying, "This is a right that was secured by much sacrifice."
East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen thanked people for coming out to "think about, honor, and respect" those who gave their lives. "This is community," he said. "This is what it's all about."
