The City of Everett gathered alongside residents, veterans, local officials and City employees at the Gold Star Gazebo at Glenwood Cemetery to honor and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.
Antoine Coleman, the City of Everett’s Director of Veterans Services, was pleased to welcome this year’s keynote speaker, David Nicastro. Nicastro served in the United States Marine Corps beginning in August 1996 as an infantryman and was selected to an Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST Co) from his Security Forces School where he served from 1997 to 2003. He was honorably discharged from the marines a sergeant and quickly entered the war in Iraq as a private security/government contractor from 2004 to 2007, where he worked closely with intelligence agencies as a covert security agent, and Afghanistan from 2007 to 2014. Nicastro would then come home because he wanted to raise his three young children and also became a Massachusetts State Trooper in 2015 until 2020 when he was discharged because of post-traumatic stress connected to the many years of unprocessed traumas from war and his combat service. He currently volunteers with Amirah Inc., a nonprofit that provides safe refuge for women removed from the life of sex trafficking, exploitation and prostitution. He is also a group leader with the Welcome Home Initiative (WHI), retreat centers in New York and Virginia Beach, providing veterans of war a place to process through their own post-traumatic stress, addictions, and unresolved traumas.
In addition to Nicastro, speakers at the service included Antoine Coleman, Bishop Robert Brown, Senator Sal DiDomenico and State Rep. Joe McGonagle.
The award-winning Everett High School (EHS) Band performed patriotic selections throughout the service like the Star-Spangled Banner, God Bless America and America The Beautiful. The service continued with the roll call of all Everett veterans who have passed since last year and was immediately followed by the playing of TAPS by a member of the EHS Band. The service concluded with final remarks from the City of Everett’s Veterans Service Office and the EHS Band performing God Bless the USA.