This year marks the 45th anniversary of the Brinks armored car heist that left three dead, numerous injured and a bucolic suburban way of life changed.
The ceremony this year takes place at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20 by the Brinks Memorial at the New York State Thruway entrance on Mountainview Avenue in Nyack.
The heist started at what was then the Nanuet Mall, where self-described revolutionaries killed Brinks guard Peter Paige and wounded others and stole $1.6 million.
The perpetrators were then snared in a roadblock at the Thruway entrance in Nyack, where they ambushed police, bursting out of the back of a U-Haul and opening fire. Nyack Police Officer Waverly Chipper Brown was killed at the scene and Sgt. Edward O'Grady died from his wounds at Nyack Hospital.
Keynote speaker will be Rockland County Undersheriff Robert Van Cura. Just 20 and a new police officer at the time, Van Cura was among the responders that day.
Injured guard, later lost to another terror attack
This year, the ceremony will also include a tribute to Brinks security guard Joe Trombino, who was injured during the 1981 Brinks heist.
He was killed nearly two decades later, during the 9/11 attacks while on duty for Brinks.
Francis Joseph Trombino, known as Joe, was guarding a Brinks truck during a drop-off at the Nanuet Mall.
Joe, as he was known, was shot in the shoulder during the Brinks heist perpetrated by erstwhile Weather Underground revolutionaries.
Nyack Police Detective Arthur Keenan and Brinks guard James Kelly were also injured.
Trombino underwent multiple surgeries to restore use of his arm.
In 1993, Trombino had been at World Trade Center just hours before a bomb exploded in the underground parking garage. Six were killed and scores injured.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Trombino remained with his truck under the north tower, as the building shook and water cascaded down, fulfilling his duty to protect. He was 68 years old; his wife said he was planning to retire the next year.
A link to New York attacks
Bob Baird, who was managing editor of what was then The Rockland Journal-News the day of the Brinks robbery, will read the tribute to Trombino.
Baird had advocated for years to have Trombino's name added to Rockland's 9/11 Memorial at Haverstraw Bay Park, even though Trombino, a Clifton, New Jersey, resident, never resided in the county.
This year, as the nation marked 25 years since the 9/11 attack and Rockland marks 45 years since Brinks, Baird has renewed his efforts.
"Although he never lived here, his connection to two historic events that forever changed Rockland deserves special mention this year as we mark their dual anniversaries," said Baird, 78, of Nanuet.
An apology, too late for Trombino
Trombino had inspired another strange connection between the Brinks attacks and 9/11.
Judith Clark, convicted of murder in the Brinks crimes, issued her first apology in 2002, after learning that Trombino had been killed on 9/11.
She wrote in a 2002 Community View published by lohud: "Recently, I found out that one of the victims of the World Trade Center attack was Joseph Trombino ...For years, I have been writing and rewriting a letter of apology for my actions to the victims and families. For reasons of apprehension and fear of reopening old wounds, I did not send it. Now, Mr. Trombino will never read my apology."
Clark, sentenced to 75-years-to-life for her role as getaway driver, was granted clemency in 2016 by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and later released from prison on parole in 2019.
Remembering Brinks: If you go
The annual memorial ceremony for the Brinks armored truck robbery takes place at the Thruway entrance on Mountainview Avenue, by Route 59, where Nyack officers Brown and O'Grady were killed in an ambush.
When: 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Where: Mountainview Avenue at the entrance to the New York State Thruway by the Brinks memorial.
The ceremony is open to the public to attend.
Reminder: Mountainview Avenue will be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic during the ceremony, so anticipate delays.
Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy for lohud.com and the USA Today Network New York. Reach her at ncutler@lohud.com; follow her on Twitter, Threads and Instagram at @nancyrockland.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Brinks robbery in Rockland, 45 years ago, holds tragic link to 9/11
