HOBOKEN MEMORIAL DAY PARADE: Wednesday, May 22nd at 6:30 p.m. on Washington Street

The oldest continuous parade in the State of New Jersey, Hoboken’s 121st Annual Memorial Day Parade will take place this Wednesday, May 22, assembling at 6:00pm near City Hall (1st Street and Washington Street) and proceeding north on Washington Street at 6:30 to the reviewing stand on 10th Street and Washington Street in front of the Hoboken Elks Lodge.

Presented by Hoboken American Legion Post 107, the parade has taken place here in the community of Hoboken for the past 121 years. For most of those years, it has been held on the Wednesday prior to the Memorial Day Weekend, to ensure optimal attendance for participants and spectators alike.

Typically, Washington Street closes to traffic south of 11th Street from 6-7 p.m. and NJ Transit buses operate on a detour along Bloomfield Street and Hudson Street.

This year’s Grand Marshal is Jim Vance, a decorated Vietnam Veteran who flew 1,600 hours of combat time for the United States Army and is the recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and the Air Medal with 24 Oak Leaf Clusters.

Joining Grand Marshal Vance will be the NY/NJ Port Authority Pipe & Drum Band, Hoboken High School Marching Band, Weehawken High School Marching Band, Union City High School Marching Band, the Boy Scouts, Girls Scouts, Police/Fire/EMS units, and many more civic leaders and organizations.

Again, the Hoboken Memorial Day Parade is this Wednesday night. The parade, meant to honor our nation’s fallen heroes, will likely result in an hour-long inconvenience to traffic flow in Hoboken. If that seems too much, please consider the following:

• Hoboken lost 71 sons in World War I.
• The Second World War saw a staggering 263 of our citizens killed in action.
• In the Korean War, we lost another three.
• Nine Hoboken men died in Vietnam.

“For a square mile,” said the late, great Jack O’Brien, in a 2011 interview with hMAG, “that’s a hell of a sacrifice.”

“Heaven, Hell or Hoboken…”
-General John “Blackjack” Pershing
Commander, American Expeditionary Forces
World War I

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