Town remembers SSG Derek Farley
SSG Derek Farley has a bridge in Nassau Rensselaer County County, NY;
Staff Sgt. Derek Farley would not have wanted anything named in his honor, said his mother, Carrie Farley.
“He would be yelling at me right now if he saw this,” she said with a smile Sunday at a ceremony naming the bridge after her son, who was killed Aug. 17, 2010 trying to defuse a roadside bomb in the western Afghanistan city of Farah. “He wouldn’t have wanted the attention. He was a soldier through and through.”
A small stretch of pavement and stone on Route 20, The Staff Sergeant Derek Farley Memorial Bridge runs over the Valatie Kill, right on the Schodack-Nassau town line. The road is a main artery for many who commute through Rensselaer County.
“When people drive to and from work, they’re going to see this and remember Derek,” said Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin, R-Schaghticoke.
Naming the bridge after Farley was McLaughlin’s idea.
They don’t do it to get pieces of public property named after them, but if that’s what it takes to remind people of their sacrifices….
Category: Support the troops
Correction to the opening line: The bridge is inthe Town of Nassau in Rennselaer County, which is a few miles from Albany, New York. This was not in Nassau County. The article has it right.
Anyway, I saw this yesterday on local tv and wanted to stop for the ceremony but was unable to. My 88-year-old father-in-law (World War II Army veteran) stopped over for a visit.
The bridge is actually in the Town of Nassau (upstate Rensselaer County). Nassau County is on Long Island.
God speed Brother.
Boom, Boom, Boom,,,,,,,
God bless Derek and his family. His Mom says that he was a fan of the History and Military channels while other kids were watching cartoons. He was a fan of The Band of Brothers and wanted the camaraderie he saw depicted in that series. He found it. My guess is that the late Dick Winters welcomed him personally at the gates of Heaven