A March For All Veterans—

Stephen Cain’s Journey To Boston Included A Breathtaking View In Newtown

By Shannon Hicks

If you thought you heard bagpipes around midday last Friday but could not locate the source, your mind was not playing tricks on you. The bagpipe music was real, and it was on the move.

Stephen Cain, a Ridgefield resident and retired major in the British Army, was on the second of a five-leg march that began at West Point Academy and will eventually end on The Charles River Bridge in Boston. He is being joined for his march by at least one bagpiper at all times, and any veterans who also wish to accompany him.

His march, which is being done on weekends, has three goals. His primary goals are to raise awareness and funds for British veterans and their families through BABFA, or the British Army Benevolent Fund America. Third, he is promoting the special bond that exists between all veterans, “especially the Yanks and Brits who have shared so much over the years and who are now sponsoring each other in many places around the globe,” Major Cain said via a premarch press release.

Major Cain served in the Royal Fusiliers and the Parachute Brigade of the British Army before retirement. He moved with his wife Donna to Ridgefield during the 1990s, and is applying for dual citizenship.

The “March United For Comrades Who Cannot” began the first weekend of October, when Major Cain made a 42-mile trek from the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., to Ridgefield.

“West Point gave me a great sendoff,” Major Cain said last week. “They had a bagpiper, a group of Legionnaires, and veterans who marched with me.”

Major Cain passed through Newtown on October 10. He started his morning in Ridgefield and made his way through Bethel via Route 53, eventually ending up on Plumtrees Road, then crossing into Newtown on Great Hill Road and continuing on Castle Hill Road. It was there that he was awed by a view that has captured the interest of photographers and tourists for years: the view from the top of Castle Hill, looking over Newtown Congregational to the meetinghouse, Trinity Episcopal Church, and Newtown’s flagpole.

Major Cain reached the center of town shortly after 11 am, where he was welcomed to Edmond Town Hall by First Selectman Joe Borst.

“I came over the top of the ridge and was stunned by the view,” Major Cain told Mr Borst. “I saw your Star Spangled Banner and called my wife and said, ‘Get in the car. You must see this.’”

Major Cain was joined at the town hall by bagpiper Scott Solomons, a Newtown resident who had taken time off from his dental practice to march for a few hours with the veteran. He was also joined by a second bagpiper, Thomas Elliott.

While waiting for the arrival of Geoff Harrington — a fellow Ridgefield resident, American Legion Post 78 member, and coordinator of American Legion support for Major Cain along his route — Major Cain also met a few curious passersby and answered questions about his journey.

“I am doing this march,” he said, “to celebrate the two nations that will always work together.”

Major Cain carries with him the names of the American soldiers and the British soldiers who have died during the War on Terror.

“I carry them with me. They’re in an envelope protected from the weather. I’ll hand them over when I get to Boston,” he said.

Major Cain’s backpack had been outfitted with a pair of flags, the Union Jack on his left shoulder and an American flag on his right. A center panel of fabric between the flags also depicted the two flags, and had the words “New York To Boston Veterans’ March” in red.

“There’s no politics here, this is not about whether war is good or bad,” he continued. “It’s about supporting each other. I am motivated by the need to support our veterans.”

He was motivated, he said, by a desire to do something for Veterans’ Day.

“It’s what we call Armistice Day,” he said in his British accent, “or many people call it Remembrance Day. It doesn’t matter what you call it, it’s just an important day to remember.

“My method of remembering my comrades is to march. Soldiers don’t walk,” he said, “we march.”

Once Mr Harrington arrived, the group made its way across Main Street and then traveled a half-block north, to the Soldiers & Sailors Monument. There Major Cain laid down a bouquet of red and white roses, “the colors of my homeland,” he said, before resuming his march.

His weekend route took him down Church Hill Road into Sandy Hook, along Glen Road and over Lake Zoar into Southbury, and continued Saturday and Sunday to Waterbury, Marion, and Meriden, logging 54 miles in all.

Major Cain will be marching this weekend (October 17–19) from Meriden to Eastford, another 51 miles. The weekend of October 23–25 will see him walking from Eastford to Framingham, Mass., another 52 miles. Halloween weekend has been reserved as a “makeup” weekend in the event of impossibly inclement weather or other unexpected circumstances, and then Major Cain will resume and conclude the march the weekend of November 7–9, when he stretches his legs for just 24 miles, from Framingham to The Union Club in Boston. He will be a featured speaker in Boston’s Remembrance Day ceremonies on November 11, and is also scheduled to be a guest speaker that day in Ridgefield for the town’s Veterans’ Day ceremonies at Lounsbury House.

Major Cain finished last weekend’s march ahead of schedule, reaching Meriden by Saturday evening.

“It went terrifically,” he said Tuesday evening, back at home. “We arrived early Saturday evening… we were motoring,” he said with a laugh.

The weekend was another successful one for the soldier, who met a number of people along the way who helped restore his faith.

“I met one man, Michael C. Kelley, who drove past me, then came back and told me he had heard about me and wanted to thank me for what I was going,” Major Cain said. “He reached into his wallet and cleaned himself out. He gave me everything he had as a donation.”

Meeting people takes time, certainly, but Major Cain knew that he would be taking time to talk to people along his route. Another memorable meeting last weekend involved an elderly couple. She was 75, Major Cain learned, and her husband was even older.

“He had been in the military, and he kept calling me Sir,” said Major Cain, who met that couple “probably two or three miles past Newtown. Wonderful people. It just makes your day to meet people like that.”

While Major Cain does not let his mind wander too much during his march (“You can’t let your mind wander, because a lot of drivers around here aim their cars,” he said this week), he finds inspiration in what he has set out to do.

“I’m uplifted by what I’m doing. By the grace of God He’s given me a good strong pair of legs, and air in my lungs, and I have a duty,” he said this week, a few days before the next leg of his journey. “I’m marching, basically, because I can. I’m marching for those who cannot.”

(For additional information about the British Army Benevolent Fund America or to make a donation toward Major Cain’s march, visit BABFA.org. Major Cain welcomes veterans who would like to join him for any portion of his march. To join him or to cheer him on during the remaining legs of his march, visit the BABFA website, which has his entire route mapped out.)