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Fallen Marine honored

BY WIL CRUZ | Newsday Staff Writer

May 9, 2006

Jackie Soldano (left), sister of Jared Kremm (LI soldier killed in Iraq) and Nancy Young (right, mom, join Congressman Steve Israel as he affixes a street sign to rename Lincoln Boulevard in front of Hauppauge High School in Kremm's honor on Monday, May 8, 2006 in Hauppauge. (Newsday / Howard Schnapp)

In honor of one of Long Island's fallen servicemen in Iraq, a street was renamed for the Hauppauge resident who enlisted with the Marine Corps after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lincoln Boulevard, in front of Hauppauge High School, will now ceremonially bear the name of Jared Kremm, 24, who was killed in October in an explosion in Saqlawiyah, Iraq. He was the 13th soldier from Long Island killed in the war in Iraq.

A ceremony was held yesterday at Hauppauge High School, where Kremm was a student and played football.

Kremm's family was joined by Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), Hauppauge students and officials, fellow Marines and others.

"We thought that this would be an important way of ensuring that a future generation of students ... know about his sacrifice on their behalf," said Israel, who attended Kremm's funeral in November. "We're doing this at the school to try and teach students ... that we all have the right to agree with the decision to go to war ... to disagree with it ... or to remain silent."

"But no one has a right to forget the sacrifice of our troops or their families," he added.

Kremm was raised in Bay Shore but later moved to and attended high school in Hauppauge. Relatives have said he followed his grandfather and uncle into the Marines, but was particularly moved by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The lance corporal with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary was serving his tour in Iraq.