Photo Courtesy of BHS Veterans salute the graves of Vietnam veterans buried in Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield.
Vietnam Veterans Day was commemorated on Saturday, March 28, in the veterans circle at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield.
The event was organized by the Belleville Historical Society who were joined with veterans from Belleville, Nutley and Bloomfield.
There are 272 Vietnam veterans buried in the section, all young men, according to Society president Michael Perrone.
Thirty-seven of the young men died in Vietnam with the others passing a few years after the war.
The Society had previously cleaned all 272 gravestones and set American flags at each grave for the event.
An opening prayer was read by Belleville American Legion Post 105 Commander Walter Labar, followed by the singing of the National Anthem by Bloomfield High School Bloomfield High School junior Marley Dennis.
The flag salute was conducted by former Belleville mayor Mario Drozdz, a Gold Star Family member who’s 20 year old brother Stanley, an Army PFC, was killed in action in Vietnam.
The closing prayer was read by Nutley American Legion Post Chaplain Steven Crowley.
Taps were played by Vietnam Marine Corps veteran Peter Gasievich.
The event concluded with Vietnam Air Force veteran Louis Johnson, a member of the Essex County Emerald Society, playing Amazing Grace on his bagpipes as he paraded along the flag decorated graves of the young men at rest in Row F, all of whom were killed in action in Vietnam.
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