Community Corner

VIDEO: Monuments Dedicated to Veterans and Nonmilitary Casualties

Hundreds of people attended Veterans Day ceremonies in Swampscott on Sunday.

 

On Sunday's spring-like morning the two newest Swampscott monuments were unveiled and dedicated.

The War Memorial Monument took its place on Monument Avenue and the Non-military Casualties Memorial took its place on the Town Hall grounds.

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At 11 a.m., hundreds of people including military personnel and local color guards circled the War Memorial's 8-piece, 7,089-pound monument.

It honors Swampscott military people who have lost their life in the war on terror (or served in the military during that time).  

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It has 35 names on each wing and a center tablet bearing the names of Specialist Jared Raymond and Captain Jennifer Harris who made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for America.

Veterans Day speakers included War Memorial Committee Chairman David Van Dam, emcee Master Sgt. Gerald Goncalo, a Junior ROTC instructor at Lynn English High School, and State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead.

Both the master sergeant and state representative quoted US presidents in their remarks.

The master sergeant turned to John F. Kennedy's famous words about service: "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

The state representative turned to Abraham Lincoln's first inaugural address, March 4, 1861, when he reached out to Southerners, stressing the common ground between the North and South and trying — what would prove to be in vain — to stave off their secession.

"The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

After the Monument Avenue ceremony, Veterans Agent Jim Schultz and War Memorial Committee member Jacki Raymond unveiled the Nonmilitary Casualty Memorial.

The memorial is dedicated to people who died during the War on Terror, though not as members of the military.

It bears the names of journalist Michael Kelly, United Flight 175 (9/11) passenger Robert Jalbert and retired U.S Army Specialist Justin Mooers.

U.S. Army Specialist Justin Mooers was severely injured in 2002 while staging for the initial assault in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and was retired from the Army a short time later. He died in 2008.

 

 

 

 


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