It was a salute to their service.
Brooklynites honored two dozen local veterans of the Korean War during a ceremony near a Downtown monument memorializing the conflict.
The group’s Nov. 8 tribute at Cadman Plaza Park’s Korean War Veterans Plaza provided a moving start to the borough’s many Veterans Day remembrances days before the official holiday on Nov. 11, according to an organizer.
“It was amazing, incredible,” said Toba Potosky, the president of green-space steward the Cadman Park Conservancy, who has staged the annual ceremony for the past five years.
Local pols — including Borough President Adams, Downtown Councilman Stephen Levin and state Sen. Marty Golden (R–Bay Ridge), who on Nov. 6 lost his seat of 16 years to Democrat Andrew Gounardes, but has yet to concede — joined veterans and their family and friends to honor the heroes, and to present 25 plaques to 25 men and women who served during the 1950–53 war between North and South Korea, in which United States troops fought alongside the South Koreans.
One honoree said the best part of the day was when his pals told him he didn’t look a day older than when he first put on his military uniform decades ago.
“I saw a lot of people that I know and everybody said to me, ‘For a guy that had a stroke you look very well,’ ” said Brighton Beach resident Jerome “Jerry” Forman, a Marine Corps veteran stationed in North Carolina during the war, who said he was never deployed.
The yearly tribute stands out among the borough’s Veterans Day events because the Korean War doesn’t always get as much recognition as other conflicts, but its vets made the same sacrifices — and deserve the same honors, according to Potosky.
“Often times the Korean War is overlooked,” he said.
