The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9111 will hold its annual services at 10 a.m. Monday. American Legion Post 411 will hold a similar service at 11:30 a.m.
By: Marisa Maldonado
Local veterans organizations will observe Memorial Day on Monday with services open to the public.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9111 will hold its annual services at 10 a.m. at its Henderson Road headquarters, where local clergy will lead prayers and township dignitaries will speak. A band will play taps, a military composition traditionally played at funerals, and guns will be fired.
The Rev. John Maltby of Miller Memorial Presbyterian Church and Rabbi Levi Azimov of Chabad of North Brunswick and South Brunswick will lead opening prayers, and Richard Pollard, VFW chaplain, will say a closing prayer.
Afterward, post members will lay a wreath at the Vunk-Quick burial ground on Beekman Road at the grave of Abraham Quick, a veteran of the Revolutionary War.
The American Legion Post 411 will hold a similar service at their building on Major Road at 11:30 a.m. Free food will be served after the ceremony.
VFW Commander Al Kady said he will talk about the meaning of Memorial Day. Unlike Veterans Day, which remembers all veterans, Memorial Day remembers only those who were killed in battle.
"I’m not the hero," Mr. Kady said. "The heroes are left out there."
Mr. Kady said he also lays a wreath and a flag at the Hush-Thompson burial plot at the corner of Sand Hill and Dundee roads, a place not easily accessible to the general public because of its wooded location.
The services are bittersweet because of the solemn nature of the holiday, Mr. Kady said.
"It’s a wonderful day," Mr. Kady said. "I don’t enjoy it, but I do it because I feel like we’re helping somebody."
Mr. Kady said the public should not clap during the ceremonies in respect of the solemnity of the day.
For more information on the services, call Mr. Kady at (732) 422-4724.

