New York State Military Museum names P.C. resident Veteran of the Year
November 7, 2024 at 12:18 a.m.
Every year, the Friends of the New York State Military Museum and the Capital District of New York Chapter of the Association of the United States Army come together to elect their Veteran of the Year.
It’s an event Port Chester resident Chester “Chet” Edwards, a retired colonel in the New York Guard and U.S. Navy combat veteran, has known about for years.
“I’m very familiar with the museum, I’ve been up there a few times,” he said. “Historically, they’ve picked regional veterans. People from the area.”
But that trend changed this year when a board member familiar with Edwards’ post-military career put his name into the running.
“It’s not something that I had anticipated at all,” he said. “I had heard they were throwing my name around, but I never thought they would pick me.”
He was invited by retired Brigadier General Barry Hartman to Saratoga Springs on Oct. 22 to be honored as the New York State Military Museum’s 2024 Veteran of the Year.
His name will be permanently inscribed on a plaque alongside previous honorees and his photo will be featured near the entrance of the museum until next year’s selection is made.
“I wasn’t sure if I deserved, or wanted it, but he insisted,” Edwards recalled. “And my family did, too, so I went along with it.”
He was awarded for both his time in the armed forces and for his years of work volunteering for his community.
Edwards’ military career began in 1966 when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. His three-year-long stint there included a year of combat in Vietnam as part of the Mobile Riverine Force, where he was a Coxswain for an Assault Support Patrol Boat.
Leaving in 1972, he spent the next 30 years working in finance until he joined the New York State Guard in 2002, following the terrorist attacks on 9/11/2001.
For the following 15 years, he assisted civil authorities after natural disasters and other incidents, including a 3-month deployment managing troop movements into Hurricane Sandy crisis zones.
It was during this time that Edwards met Hartman.
“Coincidentally, he was actually my commanding officer when I was with the New York Guard,” he said.
Edwards retired in 2018, having earned the rank of colonel.
But his public service wasn’t limited to serving in the military.
After his time in the Navy, he spent several years volunteering with groups like the American Red Cross, the Port Chester Council for the Arts and Westchester County R.E.A.C.T., a group that would patrol the highways and provide drivers with roadside assistance.
Closer to home, he was a volunteer firefighter with the Port Chester Fire Department, served as chief of the Port Chester-Rye-Rye Brook EMS and continues to be an active member of the Knights of Columbus.
He currently serves as chair of Port Chester’s Housing Task Force, which is responsible for studying how to create more affordable housing in the Village, and is on the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Honor Flight, a nonprofit that pays for veterans to be flown to Washington, D.C. to visit war memorials for free.
Edwards said he stays busy partly out of necessity.
“A couple of things motivate me,” he said. “When we came out of war, we had all this stuff going on in our heads. Today, you would call it PTSD. Doing all this work is my way of coping with that. It’s a way to give back to my community, but it’s also therapeutic.”
Edwards accepted the honor, as well as a citation from the Capital District of New York Chapter of the Association of the United States Army and two proclamations, one from State Senator Shelley Mayer and another from Assemblyman Steve Otis.
Edwards has them hanging on a wall in his home but emphasized that he doesn’t work for accolades.
“Getting these kinds of awards, it’s like putting lipstick on a pig,” he laughed. “They are not a factor of me doing these things. I really appreciate them, but they are not a factor. I’ll do them as long as I physically can. Then I’ll figure out something else I can do that’s less physical.”
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