Those along Memorial Day parade route may have spotted a unique tribute: For the third year, the Republican Town Committee (RTC) float, a half-scale replica of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, joined the march to honor the nation’s fallen soldiers.

“We decided we wanted to do a tribute for Memorial Day for all the soldiers and servicemen and women. We thought we had enough people to do a half scale replica of the tomb,” said RTC Chair Jim DiCarlo.

In its third year in the parade, the replica was joined by a banner celebrating the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.

“My uncle landed in Normandy, and that’s why it’s so special to me,” said Carolyn Wright, co-vice chairman of the RTC. “You have to go [to Normandy] to know what they went through.”

“As an organization in town, we wanted to do something special,” DiCarlo said. “Memorial Day is a special day…There’s a lot of hard work into this.”

Though the RTC has traditionally marched in the parade, DiCarlo said the idea to add the float three years ago came from Army veteran and RTC member Jay Richardson. The group put the replica together with the help of local carpenters and donated graphics from SIGNLite.

The RTC put the replica together with graphics based on the symbols on the actual tomb and tiles to replicate the marble of which the original, located in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, is made.

With complete accuracy as a goal, the float is correct down to the order of the five flags representing the branches of the U.S. military.

The RTC’s float joined a diverse group of other marchers at the Memorial Day parade including fife and drum corps, the North Haven Congregational Church, North Haven Police and Fire departments, and veterans and representatives of the armed forces.

The day was capped off by a ceremony with speeches from First Selectman Mike Freda, State Senator Martin Looney, State Representative Dave Yaccarino, and American Legion Murray-Reynolds Post 76 members Charlie Morrissey and Charles Burke. The ceremony also featured a patriotic performance by the North Haven High School band led by director Ken Tedeschi.

“One of the things that strikes me as being most important about today is the fact that we need to concentrate more on the things we share together than the things that make us different,” said Morrissey, grand marshal of ceremonies. “The people we are celebrating today were Americans, some of them not even American citizens…and they fought for our country when it was necessary.”