Long Beach honors injured ‘Warriors’

A dozen servicemen arrived in Long Beach last weekend with their families, as hundreds of residents flocked to the boardwalk for a Sunday morning race and later to West Beech Street for the annual parade to welcome the wounded veterans.

The Long Beach Waterfront Warriors has brought such military heroes to the city for the last eight years, as the trip for the 12 families — about 60 people in total — offers a reprieve from the struggles of recuperating from injuries suffered in combat.

Many are undergoing treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. according to John McLaughlin, a retired firefighter who co-founded the organization with Gerry Snell in 2009, and suffer from injuries and conditions including lost limbs, traumatic brain injuries, gunshot wounds and post-traumatic stress disorder.

McLaughlin said the soldiers were surprised to see the large turnout from the city’s residents, as the local Veterans for Foreign Wars, the Long Beach Fire Department, a motorcycle club and a bagpipe band came together to make the parade — along West Beech Street, from Ohio Avenue to New York Avenue — a special procession.

“The parade went very well, everybody came off the beach to watch them and the service people were very impressed with our town,” McLaughlin said. “All of the volunteer fire departments from around town came and put up ladders and hung flags all the way down Beech Street so it was similar to a tunnel of flags.”

The 5K earlier that morning also had a large turnout, as nearly 250 racers completed the 3.1-mile run. Robert Cruz, former master sergeant for the Marine Corps, finished first overall in the veterans division with a time of 25:17, and Janet Pescatore finished in 34:31, first among female veterans. Laurel Fisher, of Garden City, won the overall female division with a time of 20:48, and overall male winner Ronald Joseph, of Rockaway Park, finished in 18:09, the fastest time of all competitors. David Ortiz, of Long Beach, was crowned in the physically-challenged division, completing the race in 28:07.

The group of recovering soldiers and their families — who are staying at Allegria Hotel — will remain in town until Friday. They toured Manhattan on Tuesday, where they visited the site of the World Trade Center, barbecued with New York City Fire Department Rescue Company 1 and received a panoramic view of the city from the top of Rockefeller Center. The servicemen were scheduled to spend Wednesday on the beach — where Cliff Skudin offered to give surf lessons to the injured soldiers — before heading to a Long Island Ducks game that night.

“The most beneficial thing is that the families are able to come together and relax on the beach, and then in the city, they go as a group with fellow service members, others with serious injuries, so they’re able to interrelate with them,” Snell said. “…For some of them it’s their first [time] really out in public after their injuries, so it’s nice that we can do it as a group and kind of shield them from any interruptions.”

In addition to bringing servicemen and women to the city by the sea for an annual vacation, Long Beach Waterfront Warriors sends hundreds of care packages overseas to service members during the holidays each year.

“We are very grateful for the kind of work that the Waterfront Warriors have been doing for guys in service today, and also of course for all of the injured heroes that we have that need our care,” said City Council President Len Torres. “The parade and the barbecue is just a part of a major thing that we, as a city, feel very strongly about.”