When Dukes County veterans agent Jo Ann Murphy steps onto the pavement in Oak Bluffs on Tuesday morning as a participant in the annual Island Veterans Day parade, she will be thinking about Vineyarders serving in the armed forces and wondering whether she knows them all.

During her many years working in veterans services, Mrs. Murphy said she has never seen such a peculiar time. Due to the Homeland Security Act, the county veterans agent is unable to acquire an official list of Vineyard veterans, active and retired. As a result, she has been forced to rely on families, friends and a few formal notices to piece together her list. She knows it is incomplete, and that frustrates her.

Mrs. Murphy has accumulated numerous pieces of paper in a thick folder. All contain names, all of them from Vineyard families. She puts the number at close to 60. At least three have been injured in the Middle East. Last month, she placed a newspaper advertisement seeking more names of Island veterans.

Throughout the year and with the generous assistance of many Islanders, Mrs. Murphy sends out packages to sailors, soldiers and marines who are on active duty around the globe. It is her way of saying thanks and letting them all know that there are people at home who care. It’s the Vineyard way.

“There are a lot of generous people here on the Island,” she said.

Veterans Day is Tuesday. A small but spirited group of veterans, scouts and others will assemble for a parade that begins at 10:45 a.m. at Our Market in Oak Bluffs. They will march into town, up Lake avenue and through Farland Square to Ocean Park for a simple service in front of a boulder commemorating World War II veterans. Michael A. Halt, the West Tisbury School principal and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, will say a few words.

This week, Mrs. Murphy plans to send out a stack of packages that she has been assembling at home. The packages contain goodies from many Island sources. She will send them to servicemen she has on her list. But she worries about the ones who are not on the list.

“We have to know who they are, if they need help,” she said. Recently she met with Bob Pacheco at Reliable Market and gave him a wish list of items she wanted to send to soldiers in Iraq. Mr. Pacheco specially ordered what he didn’t have. “We will send potato sticks, spaghetti and meatballs and tuna fish in cans. For some reason they love sardines. We will send boxes of candy. Granola bars. No chocolate. Chocolate melts,” Mrs. Murphy said.

She continued: “Estelle Burnham of Edgartown every once in awhile puts an advertisement in the paper. People send her money. The sheriff’s department has given money. Farm Neck has given money. The Martha’s Vineyard Permanent Endowment has given money. It all helps to pay for the postage and whatever we get.” Barry Nevin of Edgartown is helping with the packaging this week. She is the mother of James Hagerty, currently on active duty.

Mrs. Murphy knows of three Islanders who have been wounded in Iraq and she said at least two have received the Purple Heart. In separate events, Richard Monaco and Michael Berninger were hurt while riding in vehicles. Randy Dull also was injured. “There may be others, but I don’t know about it,” she said. Mostly, Vineyarders have been lucky.

“I lost track after I sent out 1,200 pounds of packages. That was last December,” Mrs. Murphy said.

Her challenge today is making sure she has names. “My understanding is that we have a kid in Afghanistan, Anthony Sullo of Tisbury. But I don’t have his address. He just came back from Iraq in the last year and now he is in Afghanistan. I wish I had his address.

“When I was in Southeast Asia in 1974, I got a letter from my mother every day and a package every week. There was never a customs form to fill out. I have to fill out a customs form for every package I send.

“The American Legion has a Vineyard Gazette with all the names of those who served in World War II, by town. But now we have Homeland Security. You can’t send packages to just any soldier. It is all very different from back then,” she said.