Memorial Service

A Tribute To The Living And Dead

By Nancy K. Crevier

The upbeat chatter of the crowd of veterans, family members of service people, and townspeople gathered at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 308, on Tinkerfield Road, Monday morning, May 25, turned quickly to a reverent silence as VFW Post members, members of American Legion Post 202, and veterans took their places to begin the annual Memorial Day Service.

Alfred E. Green, Jr, was among the many veterans who attended the event. A recipient of 13 medals, including a Purple Heart, awarded for his service in the US Army 83rd Chemical Mortar Glider Company during World War II, Mr Green still carries the scars of wounds received from mortar fire in France. The shrapnel embedded in his arms and legs serves as a constant reminder of his service to the country.

The Glider Company gunner had served in North Africa and Italy before being dropped into France, where his glider company was supposed to reconnect with the other two gliders that completed his unit. “We didn’t have precision instruments then,” Mr Green said, “so we didn’t always land together as planned. Our unit was split up, with the other gliders landing over 25 miles away from us. We counted on the numbers that more full units would make it than not,” he said. The glider units were used to land equipment and artillery for the ground troops during the war, said Mr Green.

Evacuated from the field after he was injured, Mr Green spent seven months recuperating in hospitals in France and England, even enduring the bombing of one hospital while he lay injured and unable to be moved from his room.

The injuries ended his military career, and Mr Green returned to the United States for further rehabilitation and then a long career as a purchasing agent for manufacturing companies. He retired from Omega Engineering in Stamford, and since 2001, has made his home with his son and grandson in Newtown.

“I’ve attended Memorial Day Services here every year since moving to Newtown, and everywhere I’ve lived since the war,” said Mr Green.

Monday’s service at the VFW Post was not just rhetoric and ceremony, as former VFW post commander Don Monckton introduced the veterans present, and then invited all townspeople at the ceremony to seize the moment and thank the service people there for “costs and sacrifices made by the few, so that the average person can sleep at night.”

Both veterans and guests frequently found themselves tearful as the crowd moved forward to honor those who had served the United States from World War II to the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Too moved to offer spoken words, some simply enfolded the veterans in a hug.

First Selectman Joe Borst then offered greetings to all, reminding the crowd that Memorial Day has been celebrated in the United States since the tradition of Decoration Day began in 1868 following the Civil War. “Since then, 431,576 service men and women have died in the next eight conflicts,” he said. “These are the ones we are here to honor today. Let their example spur us on to be peacemakers.”

Past commander Monckton followed Mr Borst’s remarks with his own, stating, “By honoring our war dead we preserve their memory.”

He encouraged those present to visit the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Main Street, where the names of “the sons and daughters of Newtown” from Revolutionary War times to the Gulf War are immortalized. “Pay special attention to those names with a small star beside them,” he said. “They are the ones who never returned home. Spend a moment of silence and think about the sacrifices. Leave a token of your appreciation,” urged Commander Monckton, “that you still live in a country conceived in liberty.”

VFW Post 308 Commander Junie Ingram stepped forward to place a wreath on the memorial monument located near the VFW facility entrance, followed by the placement of red carnations, symbolizing purity; white carnations as a tribute to devotion; and blue carnations, the symbol of eternity.

The service closed with a rifle salute, the playing of “Taps,” and the dismissal of a crowd humbled by the ceremony.