Photo By Mark Getman | The 42nd Infantry Division "Rainbow Band" moves out along the Parade Route as the 1st...... read more read more
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NEW YORK -- On a chilly St. Patrick’s Day Monday, Soldiers of the New York Army National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry marched up Fifth Avenue as they led New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade for the 163rd time.
Suddenly, Spc. Daniel R. Steiger broke formation and approached his girlfriend Amber Speed who was standing along the parade route.
He was determined to pop a question three years in the making. He got down on one knee, asked his question, and was rewarded with a yes while the battalion kept on marching.
Then, with a gasp, Amber Speed placed the ring upon her finger and with that the two were engaged.
Three years ago DanielSteiger had met Amber Speed at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He had waited until this day, and this place to ask her to marry him.
It was a small moment in a day filled with emotion and symbolism for the Soldiers of the 69th Infantry.
The day began at 5:30 a.m. with a ceremonial toast of Irish whiskey in the commander's office of the Lexington Avenue Armory.
Maj. Sean Flynn, commander of the Fighting 69th, offered a toast for the leaders of the battalion, and with a quick gulp they honored the unit’s many fallen Soldiers.
Flynn also spent time explaining the unit’s traditions.
Why do soldiers of the Fighting 69th wear a boxwood sprig in the Velcro of their uniform?
To connect the soldiers with their predecessors who died at the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg. Before they charged the Confederate lines the Soldiers of the Irish Brigade had put green boxwood sprigs in their hatbands to mark themselves as an Irish unit.
Why do officers of the Fighting 69th carry a blackthorn fighting stick?
To connect them to the regiment’s Irish heritage, going back to 1851, when a New York State Militia regiment composed mainly of Irishmen, the ancestor of the 69th, volunteered to march at the front of the group to protect the parade. A blackthorn stick is carried by Irish gentlemen.
The unit then marched to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where they participated in a special mass, and then they marched to the parade’s starting point.
At the 11 a.m. start time, a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernian's Parade Committee approached the 69th's battalion commander, New York Army National Guard Major Sean Flynn and asked him the traditional question: "Is the 69th ready?"
At that point Flynn and the Soldiers shouted back "The 69th is always ready!" and stepped off on the parade route, accompanied on their march by two Irish Wolfhounds, the mascot of the regiment.
It is these little details and nods to the unit’s history that makes the parade special to so many involved, and the reason why some veterans participate in the parade for decades and decades.
And why guests like Representative Peter King, and National Guard Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel, came to join the 69th in their march.
The troops who came before have filtered in and out, with new Soldiers each year walking up Fifth Avenue. Today, the famously Irish unit is a diverse multiethnic set of Soldiers, men and women, from all over New York City, but by invoking these traditions, every member becomes an honorary Irishman.
This way, as Father Francis Duffy, the regimental chaplain in World War I said: "They are Irish by adoption, Irish by association, or Irish by conviction."
Each tradition is a bit like a promise, as traditions taught to young Soldiers serve as a way of conveying that their history has meaning, something to be proud of, and something they must live up to.
Traditions like the parade tie people together, just as a grave can symbolize a memory, just as a flag can symbolize a nation, and just as a ring can symbolize a marriage.
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 03.20.2014 11:21 |
| Story ID: | 122291 |
| Location: | NEW YORK , NY, US |
| Web Views: | 166 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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