AAR Remember the USS Cole Memorial at NYC Muslim Day Parade

October 12, 2008 in AARs

Today we honored the memory of our fallen heroes who were murdered by Al Qaeda in the sneak attack on the Guided Missle Destroyer USS Cole on October 12, 2000, in the port of Aden, Yemen. Seventeen of our brave servicemen and women lost their lives in the attack. Their shipmates were able to save the grievously damaged vessel and, with assistance from our allies, the vessel was brought home, repaired and returned to service in the war.

I had the honor of reading the names of those seventeen heroes. A squad of New York City Police Department Mounted Officers stopped in the middle of Madison Avenue and I saw out of the corner of my eye that many turned to listen with respect as I recited each name, rank and hometown. Many passersby thanked us for coming out to do this on the anniversary. No major media were present, but I did several interviews with smaller media outlets and as soon as I can locate any of those tapes I will link them here.

Dan reading the names of the fallen

The Muslim Day Parade came past our location immediately after we completed reading the names and Fernando and I stood on either side of our banner holding flags in silent memorial to the fallen. They were chanting “Alahu Akbar” and “Islam is the Greatest”. I only broke my silence at one point when several arabic men walked by in the midst of the parade, saw our banner and flags and held their fists high, thumbs down. I asked if that was what they thought of our military, but none answered.

I am proud to have been able to commemorate the sacrifice of these brave seventeen who are all but forgotten and eclipsed by the major loss of life in the subsequent brutal surprise attack on our city and our nation barely eleven months later on September 11, 2001. May they ever be remembered with the airmen at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and the Marines at the barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, as casualties in the War against Islamofascism.

The political sentiment of the parade marchers was pretty evident even without the obvious signs and shirts some wore.

Atlas Shrugs has photos and video here.
Urban Infidel has photographs here.
Tom Dolan supplied the following video links:

• Start of the Parade
• Reading the Names of the Fallen (Police made him move before the end)
• Parade Passes Patriots and the “Islamic Thinkers Society”
• Muslim Children react to the “Islamic Thinkers Society”
• Confrontation between “Islamic Thinkers Society” and Patriots
• “Islamic Thinkers Society” gets kicked out of the Muslim Fair Area.

The Silent Majority has a link to a Radio blog of the event here.
A great wrapup of last year’s parade can be found here.