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Parade's marshal speaks

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When the marchers in Valley Stream’s Memorial Day Parade reach the end of their route on Monday, this year’s grand marshal, Army veteran George Fox, hopes that at least some of the thousands of spectators will stop by the short ceremony at the Village Green.

“It’s about the heroes,” Fox said. “To me, that’s what they are.”

While Memorial Day is designated as the day Americans remember those who died while serving in the armed forces, Fox said he has those memories throughout the year. He knew seven young men whose names are etched into the Vietnam Wall Memorial. The oldest was 24 when he died; most were about 19.

Fox noted that their loss represents more than battlefield casualties. “It affected whole families,” he said. “They never got to come back, get married and raise families.”

Fox joined the Army in 1968 and deployed to Vietnam in 1970, serving for a year as a radio operator with a communications unit that supported infantry. The experience made him grow up, he said, and he learned to appreciate the things he had.

He remembers the political climate when he returned to the U.S. The war had been raging for 15 years and had become deeply unpopular with the American public.

“We’re treated better now than we were when we came back,” Fox said. It’s a painful legacy that endures for many veterans — he knows some who still don’t tell people they were there.

On Monday, the parade will start at the Wheeler Avenue School at 9:30 a.m., proceed south on Rockaway Parkway and turn right onto Valley Stream Boulevard, ending at the Veterans Memorial Monument at the Village Green. There, a short ceremony will include the reading of names of village residents who lost their lives during military service. The route is one mile long, and the parade is expected to last until about 11 a.m.

Fox estimated that in past years, a crowd of about 100 people has attended the post-parade ceremony, many of them veterans. He said he would appreciate it if more residents showed up this time.

“That’s what it’s about,” he said. “Honoring those heroes.”