Generally Speaking: FDNY helps memorialize America’s first POW’s
The New York City Fire Department’s Ceremonial Unit and Pipes and Drums Band joined the Society of Old Brooklynites to help commemorate the 107th memorial tribute to the Revolutionary War prison ship martyrs in conjunction with the 239th anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn.
With the swirl of bagpipes and the sharp precision of the FDNY Color Guard, the ceremonies opened with U.S. Marine Corps Major Andrew Thompson leading the gathering with the Pledge of Allegiance and then the National Anthem sung by Tenor Theron Cromer from the Martha Cardona Opera Company.
Master of ceremonies Michael Spinner then narrated the long-standing traditional Maritime piping ceremony which included calling out the names of the 15 British prison ships –some which were anchored in Brooklyn’s Wallabout Bay — that held captive thousands of colonial sailors, militia, soldiers and citizens under the most inhuman and deplorable conditions. They were America’s first POWs! The narrative include the shrill sound of the bosun’s pipe, taps and eight slow bells.