Veteran's Day in Byram

U.S. Army Security Agency veteran, Richard Bowe, who also once served as Byram’s mayor and as town magistrate, led the Veterans Day service at the Veterans’ Monument at the municipal complex on Monday, Nov 11. As in years past, Bowe offered a history lesson on why the day is so special.

“We don’t want to confuse it with Memorial Day, when we honor those who we lost,” Bowe said, “Veterans Day is for all veterans, past and present. It marks the end of World War I, which occurred at 11 a.m. on the 11th day of November. And was called Armistice Day. President Eisenhower officially changed it to Veterans Day in 1954. Pretty amazing that we’re still marking the day 100 years later.”

Byram Mayor Alex Rubenstein also spoke, reading an excerpt from the late President Ronald Reagan’s now famous 1988 Veterans Day speech at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

“For too long a time, they stood in a chill wind, as if on a winter night's watch,” Rubenstein quoted from Reagan, “And in that night, their deeds spoke to us, but we knew them not. And their voices called to us, but we heard them not. Yet in this land that God has blessed, the dawn always, at last, follows the dark, and now morning has come. The night is over. We see these men and know them once again -- and know how much we owe them, how much they've given us, and how much we can never fully repay. And not just as individuals but as a nation, we say we love you.”

Byram’s Veterans Day ceremony concluded with the raising of the colors by Army veteran Paul Grzywacz and retired Navy submariner Earl Riley, as attendees were led in the Pledge of Allegiance by retired Chief of Police Eskil ‘Skip’ Danielson.

In addition to leading the service, Mr. Bowe is looking to gather interested residents together to form a Veterans Day committee.

“Anyone can join if they like,” he said, “They don’t need to be veterans. But I’d like to put together a group that can make our services like this bigger and better. The last veterans' project we got a group together for was when we built this monument in 1991. We’re very proud of it, we raised all the funds ourselves.”

Bowe would like such a committee to stand apart from the town government, but Township Clerk Doris Flynn will be taking the names of all interested parties to be put in touch with Mr. Bowe. Flynn can be reached at dflynn@byramtwp.org or by phone at (973) 347- 2500, ext. 127.