County Remembers the Fallen on Memorial Day
Staff Reports
iBerkshires
/ Monday, May 27, 2013
LENOX, Mass. — Seaman Luke Griswold of
Springfield sailed two boats full of sailors to safety
from the sinking USS Monitor during the Civil War,
then was blown off course and lost for hours in a gale
until a passing ship found him.
His actions were recognized with a Medal of Honor.
But after his death in 1892, he was buried in a grave
that bore just the number 297. Not until the past April
30, 121 years after his death, was he remembered.
It is these stories, and hundreds like them and the
"silent ones," that U.S. Rep. Richard Neal called on
Lenox residents Monday to remember during the
town's Memorial Day parade and country.
State Rep. Richard Neal
spoke at the Memorial Day
ceremony in Lenox.
In North Adams, a couple hundred people watched the parade that began at the American Legion and traveled
down Main and Eagle streets, arriving at the Veterans Memorial.
State Rep. Gailanne Cariddi, D-North Adams, stressed the courage and fearlessness of the nation's
servicemen, some who never returned home from war — a list that has come most recently include DeMarsico
and Daehling. DeMarsico, a graduate of Drury High School, was the first war casualty from North Adams since
the Vietnam War.
"They will always be remembered," Cariddi said. "They remain in our hearts, we are forever in their debt. Let
us never forget to remember they gave up all of their tomorrows for our todays."
Drury High School eighth-grader Billy Galipeau, recipient of this year's George Angeli Award given in
remembrance of the North Adams police officer killed on duty in 1960, delivered the Gettysburg Address.
Brianna Therrien led the pledge and William Brown sang the national anthem. Matt Scanlon and James
Montgomery of the Drury High marching band played taps to conclude the event.
Adams has lost 117 to war, including Staff Sgt. Robert Goyette, brother of Fire Chief Paul Goyette, on Oct. 27,
1968, during the Vietnam War. Army Lt. Col. Frederick Lora, whose great-grandparents settled on Burlingame
Hill, recalled others lost, including his own classmate at Hoosac Valley High School, Daniel H. Petithory,
among the first casualties in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Petithory, along with DeMarsico and Daehling, "these soldiers, members of our Berkshires community,
represent the over 6,000 service members who have given their life while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan since
the attack of 9/11," Lora told the large gathering at the Maple Street Cemetery. "We honor the hundreds of
thousands of American men and women who have died defending this great nation throughout our history.
"Above all, don't lose sight of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the one day America sets aside each year to
honor our fallen heroes."
Lora asked that those who had followed the parade to the cemetery do three things: Fly an American flag in
memory of those who died preserve freedom; to remember servicemen and -women at home and abroad, to
support them and their families, and to participate in the national moment of silence at 3 that day.
The VFW's Paul Hutchinson, master of ceremonies, presented Lora with a VFW hat, and introduced singer
Tom Brown, who provided music including a song about the "The Wall," the Vietnam War memorial; the
"Gettysburg Address" was delivered by Hoosac Valley High junior Tyler Carpenter and 8th-grader Kaylea
Nocher read the poem "In Flander's Field."
The Rev. Daniel Boyle of the Parish of St. John the Blessed gave the opening prayer, saying that God's
"message took form in the vision of our ancestors who fashioned a nation where all might live as one. His
message lives on in our midst as a task for us today and a promise for tomorrow."
Cheshire, as it regularly does, offered a lesson in Memorial Day history with the reading of essays by fifthgraders from Cheshire Elementary School.
Gabriella Glasier, Reva Whitman and Vito Mattia spoke of the beginnings of the holiday as Decoration Day
after the Civil War while Patrick Walsh gave the Gettysburg Address.
Gabriella, Reva and Vito each said they had family members who had served, and Memorial Day was a day
for them to remember and be together. Vito, however, had lost his father, an Air Force veteran, last year and
now the day had become a very personal time for him and his mother to decorate his father's grave.
"There is arguably no greater sacrifice to make than to die for another, said Selectman Paul Astorino.
"Americans have never ceased to honor those who gave their all."
But the "eloquence of words" cannot match their sacrifice in the cause of freedom, he said. "Troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan today are the direct descendants of the troops of Yorktown and Normandy. The battlefield may be
different, the weapons may have changed, but the fight is the same."
The toll has risen over the years. Gabriella noted that the first Decoration Day at Arlington National Cemetery
brought out 5,000 volunteers to put flowers and flags on more than 20,000 graves. Lora, speaking in Adams,
said more than 260,000 flags were placed at Arlington over the weekend.
But even community members were encouraged to listen to veterans to gain an understanding of their
experience, some veterans pointed to the difficulty in making themselves understood.
"If you didn't go, then you don't know," Vietnam veteran John Harding said at Pittsfield's ceremony on Monday.
"War is not pleasant."
The former Marine, addressing hundreds at the Pittsfield Cemetery, said he returned from Vietnam "angry and
mad" and he did not care for parades and memorials. His uniforms were stolen, and he did not care.
Returning from war often brings sleep deprivation, behavioral changes, survival guilt, post-traumatic stress
disorder and more, he said. And those who never went to war wouldn't know what that is like.
"Most of the United States have been exposed to war on our homeland. The Oklahoma bombing of the federal
building in 1995, the horrorific 9/11 attack and the most recent, the Boston Marathon," Harding said. "These
attacks give the American people some insight of the concept of war. But these attacks are ineffective and
futile for the enemy. They keep forgetting that we don't give up."
Those serving overseas to protect the nation experience horrors that most Americans will never have to
experience, he said. When they return, they need support and the freedom they fought for must "not be taken
for granted."
"These men and women deserve the best care possible," Harding said, calling for "profound" changes with the
federal Veterans Affairs, which now has a backlog of claims after more than a decade of war.
He said, "dignity is the most powerful quality of a human being. Taking it from them and you have destroyed a
soul. Stand strong and proud veterans, for you have walked the walk."
Mayor Daniel Bianchi asked residents to "say a prayer" for those who are still overseas and their families, who
are waiting for their return.
"They need our prayers, especially those who have to turn the Blue Star to Gold," Bianchi said.
Bianchi called Memorial Day "the most solemn holiday" when residents remember those who have taken "their
final roll call."