Cover photo: Legislator Chad Lennon (C-Rocky Point) arrives at Armed Forces Plaza with the SAR Flag after a 66-mile walk across Suffolk (Credit – Suffolk County Legislature)
Suffolk County Legislator Chad Lennon (C-Rocky Point) has made Veterans’ issues and awareness the pinnacle of just his first two years in Hauppauge.
The Marine Corps Veteran not only led platoons in Afghanistan, for which he received a Purple Heart, but remains on active reserve duty. He’s sponsored legislation to commemorate September 22 as Veterans Suicide and Awareness Remembrance Day. The specific date is a reference to the daily average of twenty-two Veterans who take their lives due to PTSD and other mental health issues.
Lennon also sponsored legislation to have Suffolk County formally recognize the Veterans Suicide Awareness and Remembrance (SAR) Flag, making Suffolk the first, and currently only, county in the nation to do so.
The move isn’t just symbolic; it’s home-grown. Suffolk County has the largest population of Veterans in the State of New York, and the second-largest in the country, behind only San Diego.
This weekend, Lennon, along with a platoon of several others, made the sixty-six-mile trek from the Orient Fire Department at the tip of the North Fork with an American flag and the SAR flag all the way to Armed Forces Plaza at the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge.
The trek was performed in one instance, totaling for twenty-six hours of constant walking, with a few stops along the way. Members of Lennon’s staff also partook in parts of the trek, with one aide accompanying his boss for about half the journey. Stops along the way including a 7-Eleven in Greenport, Ahkobaug Farm in Aquebogue, J&R’s Steakhouse in Calverton, Dunkin’ Donuts in Miller Place, and McDonald’s in Lake Grove, before making the final stop in Hauppauge. The route tracked along State Route 25 to NY-25A to Nesconset Highway (NY-347).
Lennon arrived at Armed Forces Plaza, SAR Flag in hand, around 11:00a.m. on Sunday, just one day before Veteran Suicide Remembrance and Awareness Day.
“This isn’t about me; this is about the issue of Veteran suicide,” Lennon told The Messenger. “I hope the spotlight stays on this issue.”
Lennon said that the support from police and EMT who trailed the entourage from Orient to Hauppauge, as well as from passersby, kept them going, even through the middle of the night.
“We might have blisters and sore backs and knees, but what’s significant here is that we drove through the physical pain and we want to be there for each other, just like for those who may be in mental pain,” said Lennon.
Lennon is no stranger to physically grueling tasks. Apart from the physical strain that’s part-in-parcel to being a U.S. Marine, Lennon makes the annual kayaking trek from Connecticut to Port Jefferson for awareness for the same cause.
“There’s no rest and your body is beaten, but it’s all about your mentality. Are you going to sit there and say, ‘there’s a reason for me to quit,’ and fall into it? “No, we all kept going.”
The creator of the SAR Flag, Kevin Hertell, of Melville, is campaigning for more states and municipalities to recognize the flag. He’s even lobbied Washington for national recognition. Congressman Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) announced a bipartisan resolution on September 22 for Congress to recognize the SAR Flag.
Hertell, an Air Force Veterans, lost two cousins to suicide within one year, one of whom was a fellow Air Force Veteran.
“The mission is to break the stigma of mental health and suicide. It’s the leading cause of death for our Veterans and military,” said Hertell. “We will lose more in one year to suicide than all of the casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.”
Assemblyman Steve Stern (D-Dix Hills) (pictured above), Chair of the Assembly Veterans Affairs Committee, said that if “there’s one critical issue” that should “never be political”, it is the “care and support for our Veterans and their families.”
“One of the most important things that you can and should be doing is raising awareness, to do everything we can to sack that stigma and get everybody talking about it, get everybody working on it, because there literally is a role for all of us to play,” said Stern. “This year, my first year as Chairman, I insisted that we hold a public hearing on Veterans’ mental health services and that we hold it right here in Suffolk County.”
Hertell (pictured above) reminded those struggling with mental health issues to call 988, the suicide crisis hotline, where professionals are available to speak 24-7.
“We are resilient. We’ll make it through together. I know because I have struggled. I have made it,” said Hertell. “With your help we can and we will make a difference and we can stop this tragic loss of life.”
The SAR Flag was promptly raised on its own flagpole, alongside the American Flag, the POW-MIA Flag, and the flags of the U.S. Armed Services.
