Four Rockland Veterans were honored yesterday with the 2021 and 2022 Buffalo Soldiers Awards. In a presentation at RCC, Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Veterans Service Agency Director Susan Branam presented the 2021 awards to Army veteran Walter Khan who served as a combat medic and telephone technician in Vietnam and Navy Air Reserve veteran Eugene Fields, who served in 1963 for eight years, retiring with the rank of First-Class Petty Officer. The 2022 Buffalo Soldiers Awards were given to Navy veteran Nathaniel Harvey Jr., who was just 19 in 1989, when he was aboard the USS Iowa when an explosion killed 47 of his shipmates. Also honored was Army veteran Dr. Abigaile Taylor, a Human Resources Clerk who also managed the Yellow Ribbon Program for the 99th Regional Support Command from 2010-2013, ensuring more than 5,000 soldiers and their families got training, education, and employment opportunities. “Buffalo Soldier” was the nickname given to members of African-American U.S. cavalry regiments serving in the west in the late 1800s.