Sheepshead Bay staple Brennan & Carr has placed a memorial outside its storefront to commemorate the 13 American soldiers killed in last week’s bomb attack at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan.
Eddie Sullivan, owner of the 83-year-old roast beef emporium at the corner of Avenue U and Nostrand Avenue, says he placed 13 American flags outside his establishment as a tribute to sacrifices made by American servicemembers.
“These guys are serving the country, serving others,” Sullivan told Brooklyn Paper. “And it’s sad that a parent would have to go through this when someone is out doing for others.”
Sullivan has several family members who are either veterans or active-duty members of the military, including three brothers, a sister-in-law, and a niece, and said that he has “a lot of compassion” for military families. But he also hopes that the memorial will serve as a tribute to anyone working in service of others, such as firefighters, cops, transit workers, and health care workers.
Passersby of various backgrounds often stop to take in the memorial, Sullivan said.
“The greatest thing that I’ve seen is people from different origins, different parts, looking at it,” he said. “Avenue U and Nostrand is like the crossroads of the world, you get all sorts of people walking by. It touches them when you say these were the servicemen who were killed, 13 men and women aren’t coming home. And they stop and listen.”
Brennan & Carr, in business since 1938, puts out a tribute around 9/11 every year, and has flown its American flag at half-mast since the terrorist attack in Kabul, which killed over 150 Afghans in addition to the American personnel.
