Rockland County’s Veterans Service Agency presented the 2020 Buffalo Soldiers Award yesterday to a Spring Valley man who spent 30 years in the military. Kenneth Nurse retired as an Army Command Sergeant Major. In accepting the award, Nurse quoted from the last original Buffalo Soldier, Mark Matthews, who died 15 years ago at age 111…
Veterans Service Agency Director Susan Branam said honors such as the Buffalo Soldier help recognize minority achievements in the military that for too long were overlooked…
Rockland County Executive Ed Day said Nurse’s dedication to the military didn’t end when he retired. He’s become a mentor with the PFC Dwyer Peer-to-Peer program, helped create the Gulf War/War on Terror monument in Haverstraw Bay County Park, and was recently elected Commander of the American Legion Post #199 in Spring Valley…
Nurse was born in Trinidad and moved to Rockland in 1984. He entered the Army in March of 1980 and by the time he retired he had earned the Bronze Star, the Armed Forces Medal, the Kuwait Liberation Medal and several others. Buffalo Soldier was the nickname given by Native Americans to African-American soldiers who served on the Western frontier after the Civil War.