FREMONT CENTER, NY — Time stretches from a Japanese POW camp in the deadly jungles of Burma to the close of the Vietnam War.

Howard Brooks is an American sailor who survived the Battle of the Sundra Straits in World War II and years as a POW. He slaved in the Burmese jungles as a captive of the Japanese, building the “Railway of Death,” which was made famous in the movie “The Bridge on the River Kwai.”

For him, it was as if time folded into itself, as his great-grandniece Maggie Schutte, along with her husband Edward and their two-year-old son Levi, attended the 139th Town of Fremont Memorial Day Parade on May 29. The Pvt. Emmett Turner American Legion Post 276, the Allan Milk Memorial VFW Post 7276 and the H. Russell Kenyon VFW Post 5808 were all represented.

While waiting for the annual parade—the second-oldest in the state—to step off, Schutte watched her son reverently place small American and POW flags in the lawn next to the Veteran’s Park Memorial. 

She shared a few highlights of her great-uncle’s saga, a story that is recounted at length in an article in “Warfare History,” by Eric Niderost.

Brooks joined the U.S. Navy as a 20-year-old from Tennessee, and in the early months of the war had his ship, the heavy cruiser USS Houston, “blown out from under them… They were gunned down by the Japanese, floated on debris for two days in the ocean, washed up on shore and welcomed by Aborigines, but later captured by the Japanese,” she recalled of the harrowing events so long ago. “He was a huge part of my life. He sacrificed so much for his country.”

Art Flynn of Callicoon, Commander of H. Russell Kenyon VFW Post #5808, noted that 2023 goes down in history as the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

“On this Memorial Day, we mark 50 years since the last American soldier left Vietnam. By any measure, it was a horrific war, in which over 58,000 Americans and a million Vietnamese lost their lives,” he said. Of the Americans lost, he added, “They served in Vietnam with courage and honor, and we will not forget the sacrifices they made in defense of our country.”

Flynn served on the USS Intrepid from 1966-1969 during the Vietnam War, while the aircraft carrier was stationed in the Tonkin Gulf. He pulled three tours of duty.

“It really chokes me up, because I’ve had members that I served with that are no longer with us; they may not have been lost in combat, but they served their country, they did their part for our freedom,” he said. He noted that three members of his family serve in the U.S. Air Force, including a husband-and-wife team who fly F22 Raptors, which Flynn called “his-and-her jets.” 

Stepping off

The Grand Army of the Republic held the first Memorial Day parade in the Town of Fremont to honor those who served in the Civil War, and this year the parade was dedicated to all the nation’s servicemen and women.

Al Steppich was honored as the grand marshal, while other parade marshals included Robbie Chemerys (Town of Fremont), Danielle Peters (Town of Callicoon) and Christian “Doc” Bolduc (Town of Delaware).

Before the parade stepped off, a solemn memorial service was held at the Fremont Town Hall Veterans Monument, organized by veterans from the Pvt. Emmett Turner American Legion Post 276, Allan Milk Memorial VFW Post 7276 and the H. Russell Kenyon VFW Post 5808.

Henry Simon of the Sullivan West High School band performed taps, and later marched through town with his bandmates, along with military personnel, a Girl Scout troop, antique cars plus a hot rod—all watched over by local law enforcement, fore and aft of the parade.