Veterans Day ’24: RHS ’11 Speaker & 126 Names Added to Vet Memorials
The City of Rye and and American Legion Post 128 will continue its tradition of honoring Rye veterans on Veterans Day, Monday, November 11, 2024. The ceremony will be held at Rye City Hall at 10:30am. The ceremony is planned to be outdoors, weather depending, and will move indoors if necessary.
This year, Rye will be adding 126 names to the veterans monuments at City Hall. A new plaque naming Rye Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Global War on Terror and the Cold War will be unveiled which will include the names of 50 Rye veterans. The existing WWII plaque in memory of those killed in action will be updated to include an additional 15 names. The Vietnam plaque will now include an additional 44 names. And the WWII and Korea plaques will be updated with an additional 11 names and 6 names respectively. You can review the complete list of names being added.
Updates to the veterans plaques are the result of a two-year effort to collect names and finalize the design. Mayor Cohn and the Rye City Council formed a Veteran Monuments Committee in a formal resolution on August 11, 2021 at a Rye City Council meeting. The committee consists of City Councilwoman Julie Souza; Rex Gedney of the Landmarks Advisory Committee; Noga Ruttenberg, Rye City Clerk and Tim Moynihan of the Rye American Legion.
American Legion Post 128 Commander Fred de Barros will lead the ceremony. He will highlight the American Legion values of the importance of preserving our American traditions and values, improving the quality of life for our nation’s children, caring for veterans and their families, and most importantly, teaching the fundamentals of good citizenship.
This year’s keynote speaker will be Captain Leo Matthews whose name is inscribed on the new Afghanistan-Iraq plaque. He is a 2011 graduate of Rye High School and currently serves as an instructor of American Politics at West Point. A military intelligence officer by profession, Leo served with the 75th Ranger Regiment from 2018-2022 and completed three deployments to Afghanistan in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. Prior to that assignment, Leo served in the 173rd Infantry Brigade as an infantry officer. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University (’24) and an B.S. in Civil Engineering from West Point (’15). Leo and his wife, Dominique, have a son named Killian.
Rye City Mayor, Josh Cohn, County Executive, George Latimer and Assemblyman, Steve Otis are expected to deliver remarks. Robin Latimer will be the vocalist.
