veterans

Before the Veteran’s Day program began on Guild Row, Robert Santiago, the city’s commissioner of Veteran’s Affairs, took a peek at the fenced-off General Edward O. Gourdin and African American Veterans Park — a triangle-shaped parcel of green space at the intersection of Malcolm X Boulevard and Washington Street.

Growing up, Brenda Samuels knew her father, Jose Santiago, was a big deal in the military. But as a lieutenant colonel with the 82nd Airborne Division, a unit that specialized in covert operations, he wasn’t at liberty to discuss with his family the operations in which he was involved.