There is no place like our former home town, Metuchen, to experience the spirit of Patriotism especially on Memorial Day. I would like to share a press release about the parade and ceremony where we honor all veterans especially Grand Marshals from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Enduring Freedom Afghanistan and Iraq. Take a moment to read the story of Shade M. Lee, Tuskegee Airman. God Bless America and keep our heroes safe.
PRESS RELEASE May 19, 2011 For Immediate Release Contact: Caroline Woodruff 732-548-2964 Metuchen Area Chamber of Commerce Memorial Day Parade Metuchen, NJ – 5/19/2011 – On Memorial Day, Monday, May 30, 2011, Metuchen will continue its tradition with one of the area’s longest established Memorial Day parades; the first one was held on May 30, 1927. The parade begins at 10:00 a.m., rain or shine, from Metuchen’s Pearl Street parking lot. It will proceed across Center St., turn right (north) onto Route 27, and right onto Main Street. The parade will continue through the tree-lined streets of beautiful Metuchen and turn right onto High Street and then right again onto Lake Avenue where it will end at Memorial Park with a brief ceremony. The year’s ceremony features speaker Rear Admiral Timothy Beard, III of the US Naval Reserve and Tuskegee Airman Shade M. Lee (see additional information about Shade Lee below). Two local artists will be performing; Metuchen High School graduate Samantha Cook and Metuchen High School Sophomore Maddie Campbell. The Metuchen High School Band, under the leadership of John Morrison, the American Celts Pipes & Drums, the Hometown Brass Band, the Banjo Rascals, Fred Lehotay’s Ragtime Band, and an ensemble from St. Joseph High School, under the direction of Sal Ascolese, will inspire all those present. Memorial Day in Metuchen honors the lives of the forty-one Metuchen men who sacrificed their lives in our nation’s wars and the many Metuchen men and women currently serving in the armed forces. The Memorial Day Parade Committee invites all veterans, community groups, scouts and youth groups to be a part of this very special day! Our theme this year is “Thank You To Our Veterans!” This year’s grand Marshals are Corporal David Fox, US Marine Corps, representing Enduring Freedom Afghanistan; Corporal Paul Bartlame, US Marine Corps, representing Enduring Freedom Iraq; Sergeant Ray C. Lo Largo, US Army, representing Vietnam; HM2-Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Julian Rydarowski, US Marine Corps, representing Korea; and Sergeant Retired Shade M. Lee, US Air Force, Tuskegee Airman, WWII. Check store windows on Main Street to view the impressive artwork depicting the meaning of Memorial Day by our school children. The annual bicycle decorating contest, coordinated by the Recreation Commission, allows hundreds of children to ride their bikes in the parade. This popular component of our parade grows larger and more colorful each year. This event is funded entirely through private donations. The Metuchen Area Chamber of Commerce extends it thanks to the sponsors of this event: Metuchen Savings Bank and Applied Research Corporation, Principal Sponsors; American Legion Fugle-Hummer Post #65, Platinum Sponsor; Costello-Runyon Funeral Home and Victorian Office Rentals, Silver Sponsors. Look for the names of our other sponsors in the program at our Ceremony which will begin in Memorial Park at approximately noon. For more information about the Memorial Day Parade call the Metuchen Area Chamber of Commerce at 732-548-2964. The Memorial Day Parade Committee extends special thanks to all our sponsors and volunteers. About Shade M. Lee (Sgt. Retired, U.S. Air Force) Tuskegee Airman Shade M. Lee will be the Grand Marshall representing WWII at the Metuchen Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 30, 2011. For his service as a Tuskegee Airman, Mr. Lee has been awarded a Congressional Gold Medal, and he was an invited guest at the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. Mr. Lee has also received a Unity Award for Achievement in Public Service by the Union County Human Relations Commission. The Elizabeth Board of Education officially recognized him as being a role model for his determination, his ability to achieve goals, and his courage to stand up for what is right. Mr. Lee was born on June 5, 1921, in Shady Grove, Alabama, the ninth of thirteen children. His father was self-taught and took many correspondence courses in mechanical engineering, architecture, agronomy, and business administration. He taught Shade to read at age three. In such a large family all the children had to do chores. Beginning at age four Mr. Lee’s chore was to graze four to six milk cows along the country roads. It was lonely work, but he took books, including classics, from his father’s library to read while tending the cows. At seventeen he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps., a New Deal program that provided the only employment he could get. Two years later he joined the Army. From correspondence courses he had taken, he knew radio and telegraphy including Morse Code, but he could not be assigned to the Signal Corps because he was a Negro, and he could only be assigned to an all black unit. When the all black 553rd Replacement Training Squadron was formed, Mr. Lee joined them at Walterboro, South Carolina. Mr. Lee was responsible for repairing and ascertaining that all training aircraft were in top condition. But a white sergeant was blocking black flight-line workers from entering the workshops that contained the equipment to make necessary repairs. Lee consulted with a major who was an air inspector for the 1st Air Force. The sergeant and several other white men who didn’t know how to use the equipment were reassigned to work on the flight-line, while some of the skilled black servicemen were sent into the shops. A segregated army was inefficient and uneconomical; morale was very low. General Barney Giles, Vice Chief of the Air Force, visited Walterboro Air Base and was told that Mr. Lee could offer a good prospective on morale issues. After several hours with Mr. Lee, General Giles returned to Washington with his notes, which became the basis for orders issued by General Hap Arnold, Chief of the Air Force, to end discrimination on federal bases and assignments were to be based on merit and need, not race. General Giles’ notes and suggestions from his meeting with Mr. Lee were the same bases for President Truman’s Executive Order #9981 in 1948 which ended segregation in the military. After World War II, Mr. Lee reenlisted in 1948 and was stationed in Kansas, where he met the Scott brothers and their father-all attorneys. They were working with the NAACP on a very special case. They spent many meetings together at and discussed, argued, shared experiences, and concluded that custom has the force of law and that such force of law was unconstitutional. That case was later argued by Thurgood Marshall before the Supreme Court in 1954 in the case of Brown vs. Topeka Board of Education-which ruled that separate is not equal and therefore public school segregation is unconstitutional. After his military service Mr. Lee has held a variety of technological jobs including being a radar technician at the Newark International Airport, resident engineer of a data processing center for Saks Fifth Avenue, marine service engineer, computer engineer, and radio frequency/microwave engineer for New York’s NBC Channel 4. Mr. Lee has been recognized for his community service, civic duty, and activism. Mr. Lee knows first hand the inefficiency and uneconomical waste of human potential and resources under segregation. He is a man of principle and a strong believer that treatment should be based upon merit and not race-and in the words of Dr. King: on the content of one’s character. Mr. Lee will include in his remarks brief comments directed to the children, students, and young people on this solemn occasion. The public is invited in observation of Memorial Day. For public information concerning Shade M. Lee contact: Newton J. Burkett, Jr. The Burkett Organization 260 West Grand Street Elizabeth, NJ 07202-1206 (908) 352-6972 (office) (908) 803-2724 (cell) www.burketto@optonline.net
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The color RED will envelop the town of Fountain Hills, Arizona on Veterans Day, Friday November 11th in honor of the nations’s military men and women… and yes the opportunity to fly in a B-17 Warbird and possibly a B-25 is available to you! Read below to see how this exciting day will unfold…by Chairman, Jim McClellan
