Veterans Services of the Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Paterson in New Jersey and Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney participated in a memorial service on Sept. 20 to honor the brave men and women who served to defend the United States at the traveling Veterans and Athletes United Fallen Heroes Memorial, which visited Passaic County at Rifle Camp Park in Woodland Park, N.J. from Sept. 19 to 23.
Bishop Sweeney delivered an opening prayer and made comments to the crowd in front of the memorial, which has been honoring the fallen heroes in the War on Terrorism as well as their Gold Star families since 2018. The memorial has visited more than 200 locations nationwide. The monument displays more than 7,000 dog tags to represent the military veterans who died in the Global War on Terror — 13 of which honor service members from Passaic County.
The Passaic County Board of County Commissioners and the Passaic County Sheriff’s Office partnered with various organizations to make the memorial service possible.
Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter.
David Pearson, assistant director of Veterans Services at Catholic Charities, joined representatives of other veterans’ organizations, public officials, veterans, and the public for the memorial service. Speakers included U.S. Rep. Nellie Pou; Vincent Solomeno, deputy commissioner of the N.J. Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and a U.S. Army veteran; and A.J. Luna of the N.J. SOS Veterans Stakeholders group. He is a disabled combat Veteran who served in Iraq.
Luna “offered a powerful and hopeful speech to all those in attendance, reminding us of the responsibility we all have in honoring the fallen and the freedom they gave us by creating the best life for ourselves and our community,” Pearson posted on social media.
