Photo by Dominick Totino Bugler sounds Taps as Borough President Helen Marshall, keynote speaker Dr. Roscoe Brown, and Major General Richard Colt, of Fort Totten pay tribute. Borough President Helen Marshall marked the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II this past Monday, May 23, with a Memorial Day ceremony in the Veterans Memorial Garden in front of Borough Hall at 120-55 Queens Blvd. in Kew Gardens at 11 a.m.

The keynote speaker was Dr. Roscoe Brown, a captain and a squadron commander with the 332nd Fighter Group, known as the Tuskegee Airmen. Brown is currently director of the Center for Urban Education Policy at the CUNY Graduate School.

Marshall stated, “Sixty years ago, Allied forces prevailed in the most brutal war ever to engulf people of this planet. Today we especially salute the World War II veterans of this ‘greatest generation,’ which endured the Great Depression, fought in a world war and laid the foundation for America to become the super power that it is today.”Marshall praised Brown who led the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first black military aviators, who came from every corner of the nation.

“Like Dr. Brown,” Marshall said, “the names of the men in this historic unit will live on because of what they did for America during one of the most challenging chapters in our history.”

Marshall also gave special thanks to the 77th Regional Support Color Guard, the 319th Statue of Liberty Band, Queens Supreme Court Chief Administrative Judge Leslie Leach, Rabbi Mayer Isaac Perelmuter of the Reform Temple of Forest Hills, Chaplain William Hartman of the 77th Regional Readiness Command and Enchanted Florist and Greenhouse of Maspeth.—John Toscano