Blue Angels and Thunderbirds will fly over Queens today

Enjoy the show and stay safe.

DeBlasio rejects bill to aid vets

From the Observer:

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin of Scarsdale is accusing Mayor Bill de Blasio of not "understanding the military," after the mayor declined to support a bill that would allow servicemembers to purchase credit toward the public retirement system based on their years of service.

The bill, which was introduced in June by Paulin and state Sen. Bill Larkin, allows members of a public retirement system to obtain three years of service credit for up to three years of military duty if they were honorably discharged. The legislation also broadens the eligible servicemembers to include those who served in peacetime and adds military conflicts—like Bosnia and Afghanistan.

De Blasio supports a more narrow bill that would restrict the process to those who served in Afghanistan.

Councilman Eric Ulrich, chair of the council’s committee on veterans, chided the administration for not allowing veterans to collect the benefit.

“All veterans deserve the opportunity to buy back their military time so that it can be counted towards their pension,” Ulrich told POLITICO New York. “We should not discriminate any veteran especially those who served post 9/11 or in non-combat role. We are not giving them something for free. First of all, they earned it, and second of all, they have to pay for it.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed similar legislation last year, saying it was an unfunded mandate and should instead be dealt with in the state budget. Paulin said she had worked with the governor’s office since then to amend the bill.

Does Fort Totten need better security?

From WPIX:

There is a call for increased security at New York’s military reserve bases.

For example, Fort Totten in Queens can have hundreds of army reservists training there on any given day but there are no armed guards at a checkpoint.

Fort Totten’s director of operations, Mac Harris, is worried. “To me, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.​ “We are just like sitting ducks here. Just waiting for something to happen.”

According to Congressman Steve Israel, armed guards were cut at Fort Totten in 2009. It was a budget cut.

Now it’s FDNY officers on light duty checking motorists’ identification. Pedestrians and bikers can walk right in.

Forest Park's memorial trees rediscovered and rededicated

"The story of the Memorial Trees in Woodhaven. With music from musopen.org, royalty-free music. "Bullets and Bayonets" and "Comrades of the Legion" by John Philip Sousa. Special thanks to American legion Post 118; the Ladies Auxiliary; Junior Air Force ROTC of Franklin K. Lane Campus under the leadership of Air Force Master Sgt. Eddie Carr and Army Reserve Sgt. David Valentin; the St. Thomas the Apostle Woodhaven History Club led by teacher Patty Eggers; the Woodhaven Cultural & Historical Society; with special thanks to Allan Smith, Edwin Gardiner, Jr., CM Elizabeth Crowley, CM Eric Ulrich, Assemblyman Mike Miller, Senator Joe Addabbo, Pam & Walter Steffens, The Avenue Diner (Woodhaven), The Woodhaven Athletic Club, the NYC Parks Department, The Forest Park Administration at Oak Ridge and the Leader-Observer. Photos and video by Josephine Wendell."

(I apologize for not posting this yesterday. - QC)

Dromm opposed to ROTC

From the NY Post:

The head of the City Council’s Education Committee wants to shoot down the school system’s Junior ROTC programs — charging they’re training high-school students for a “war machine.”

Councilman Daniel Dromm, a Queens Democrat, said he has a “philosophical problem” with the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps programs conducted in 14 schools.

“I always wondered why these programs are mainly in schools with students of color,” he said last week during a City Hall hearing. “I have concerns about the way they go about recruitment. It contributes to a war machine, and I have some problems with that.”

Schools officials were taken aback.

“I would appreciate the opportunity to take you out to see one or two of these schools,” Department of Education Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said.

But Dromm said he had already visited the programs and opposed their very existence.

“I really have a problem with . . . them being there. It sends a message to kids about armed forces and their policies, what happens when they move forward with college,” he said.

Dromm, who represents Jackson Heights, also called on the city to end its support of the federally subsidized program. The city pays the instructors who teach the courses.

Veteran corrections officer finally gets promoted

From the Daily News:

A city Correction officer passed over for a promotion while serving in the Army Reserves will get the position and back pay, according to a settlement announced Thursday.

Emilio Pennes will be appointed to the position of deputy warden and receive three years' back pay under the settlement reached with the city Department of Correction in Manhattan Federal Court.

Pennes, an assistant deputy warden, was called to active duty in February 2007 where he oversaw a unit in Florida that provided medical and psychological support to soldiers returning from Iraq.

Though he ranked at the top of the 13 candidates for deputy warden, he was passed over because he was unable to appear in person for a March 2007 job interview with correction officials, authorities said.

Pennes, 46, had offered to do the interview on different days, by teleconference or phone, but was denied.

A lawsuit filed by the United States on Pennes' behalf says he was denied his rights under a federal act designed to protect service members from having their civilian careers derailed while doing their military service.

Run for your lives!

Great shot from Fleet Week:

Flushing Meadows Invaded

Our local heroes

From AM-NY:

Spc. Juan Arango, 24, of Elmhurst, served as a gunner in Afghanistan with the New York National Guard last year.

Read about his sacrifices as well as those of Jamaica native Sgt. Annmelissa Harvey.

Homecoming

Top 10 Things I've Learned During Fleet Week In NYC

City denied qualified war vet a job

From the Daily News:

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin says the city violated Assistant Deputy Warden Emilio Pennes' civil rights by requiring him to appear for a 2007 interview even though the Army had ordered him to Florida.

In February 2007, the Army ordered him to report to Orlando, Fla., to oversee a unit that provides medical and psychological support to soldiers returning from Iraq.

While there, he was told he would have to return to New York to interview for the deputy warden job on March 29, 2007. Pennes' offer to be interviewed by phone was turned down, prosecutors say.

Despite ranking first among 13 candidates for the job, Pennes was passed over, prosecutors say. Seven others were chosen before him.

Fort Totten reservist sold Army property on E-Bay

From the NY Post:

An Army reservist used a government purchasing program to buy $100,000 in electronics and supplies that went AWOL as he sold them in eBay online auctions, officials said.

Sgt. Joseph Copeland, 30, stationed at Fort Totten in Queens, was arrested at his Bronx home after a suspicious buyer in Colorado tipped off the feds.

Copeland was released on $30,000 bond following his arraignment on charges of theft of government property. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

The investigators found that Copeland used a government purchasing program to buy $207,766 worth of merchandise dating back to October 2006, all of which was delivered to him at Fort Totten, said prosecutors, adding that half of those purchases may have been for legitimate use.

Queens soldiers come home