WPCNR Main Street Journal. May 26, 2008: White Plains staged its annual Memorial Day Parade Monday under clear sunny skies with hundreds lining the parade route down Mamaroneck Avenue, down Main Street past City Hall and up North Broadway to the Rural Cemetery where the remembrance ceremony unfolded. The parade was lead by Grand Marshall Captain Shawn Tabankin of the “Fighting 69th” National Guard, out of Fort Smith.
Captain ShawnTabankin of Westchester County, served with the Fighting 69th in Afghanistan where he was wounded and received the Purple Heart. His sober address in which he shared the bond he felt with his fellow soldiers and the loss of his medic, a Navajo Indian, Sergeant Lee Todacheena in Afghanistan four years ago,(the Captain wears a black bracelet on his wrist with Sergeant Todacheena's name inscribed), leant a sense of immediate reality and enabled spectators to get ever so-slight an insight into how it feels to serve your country in combat with fellow Americans. Captain Tabankin urged all to remember those who gave their lives and to give a thought to their families’ loss to this year’s ceremony.
Jewish War Veterans of World War II march to applause from the spectators.
Marine Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan.
Vietnam Veterans Saluted Along the Parade Route.
American Legion Post 135 Veterans Stepping Smartly.
