Neighbors and pols gathered in Carroll Gardens on Tuesday morning to pay their respects to military veterans on Veterans Day.
One vet said he attended to give thanks to his buddies who never made it back.
“I think a lot about the guys who aren’t here,” said Nicholas Assante, a former Army sergeant who earned a Purple Heart fighting in the Vietnam War in 1968.
The reception former soldiers receive these days is a far cry from the anti-military-personnel sentiment that greeted returning Vietnam vets, he said.
“When we came home nobody welcomed us, but now people acknowledge it,” Assante said.
The guest of honor at the ceremony was Bill Harris, 96, a Scottish-born veteran who grew up in Carroll Gardens and fought in World War II. According to Joan D’Amico of the Court Street Merchants Association, who read Harris’s biography aloud, he flew over the Mediterranean Sea during the war, and remained in the Air Force reserves until 1975, when he retired as major.
