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MEMORIALDAY, 2017

Members of the Soldiers’ Monument Commission – caretakers of the Soldiers’ Memorial and Park on Crown Street – have researched as best as possible these names and apologizes to those who have lost a family member in one of these wars if we have missed that person’s name. 
The names of the 112 people who died:

Revolutionary War- 1
Civil War 57
Spanish/American War - 0
WW1 - 11
WW2- 39
Korean War - 1
Vietnam- 3

 
From the American Revolution – where most of our residents saw some fighting –
One died during the war:
Gideon Wilcoxson
 
From the Civil War –  more than  323 of our residents saw fighting – 57 died during the war:
Those who died:

James R. Baldwin

Samuel C. Barber

George Bellows

Jacob T. Brown

Alfred Burdick

James M. Burton

William F. Cogswell

Alfred Comins

Fred Daniels

Lewis Dayton

Robert Dempsey

James A. Dolphin

George Downs

Lewis Downs

Lucius Eggleston

Jared P. Evarts

Myron Ferris

Matthew Fitzgerald

Elliot Fleming

Birdsey Gibbs

Charles Gilbert

James A. Green

Manwaring Green

Michael Haggerty

Willard Hart
Hugh Hay

Lewis Hazzard

Benjamin F. Hosford

Myron N. Hubbard

William R. Hubbard

Alonzo J. Hull

Asa Humiston

George W. Hurlbut

William S. Hurlbut

Henry C. Kent

Edward B. Kinne

Charles Maddra

Walter Martin

Charles E. Palmer

Jerome Preston

Augustus Richwein

Hiram C. Roberts

Julius Rogers

Edward E. Rowe

John B. Sinclair

William H. Slack

Darwin S. Stark

John M. Teeter

Julius Thorn

Albert M. Tuttle

John K. Twiss

Cassius Watson

William S. Watson

John B. Welch

Mark H. Wheeler

Julius Woodford

Columbus C. Wright

 
From the Spanish / American War – 15 residents served; no deaths were recorded of those who served from this town.
From World War I –more than 600 residents served – 11 died in the war.
 
Those who died –
                Leonard F. Burns
                Edward E. Fitzgerald
                Thomas A. Meehan
                James E. Maddrah
                Fred N. Harbo
                Patrick Martin
                George M. Tuttle
                William Burns
                Ronald A. Pinney
                Frederick E. Danehy
                Russell L. Johnson
From World War II – more than 1551 men and women served from this town and 39 died in the war.
Those who died:
                Howard C. Beeman
                David Bernstein
                Alexander Brault
                John H. Canty
                Joseph H.Carr
                William Derose
                Kenneth Dietlin
                Walter J. Dombrowski
                George Dyson
                John A. Eddy
                Joseph English
                William Finn
                Kenneth Fox
                Eugene K. Franklin
                Joseph Greco
                Philip J. Greene
                Porter Griffin
                Harold Hack
                William C. Hall
                Andrew Huska
                Clayton Jones
                William Joyce
                Lawrence Kelson
                Francis Lemelin
                Dwight Manghue
                Ralph Mochak
                Alfred Mottalini
                George Newth
                Theodore Olszanski
                Paul Picard
                Andrew Potpolak
                Richard Price
                Walter Reichold
                Eugene Royer
                John Stella
                Edmund Stocker
                Richard Waldron
                Joseph Woyt
                William Zilinek Jr.
 
From the Korean War – many of our residents served in this war:
 One died in the war.
                Harry H. Sherman Jr.
 
From the Viet Nam War – many of our residents served in this war:  Three died in the war.
Those who died:
                J. A. “Tony” Machowski
                Edward J. Haburey
                James C. Strano
 
 
 
Memorial Day Address, Don Goetz
 
According to the website www.usmemorial.org, since 1775, 1.8 million Americans have given their lives to further an idea called America. This is a number of men and women greater than the present day populations of Philadelphia, PA or Phoenix, AZ, our fifth and sixth most populous cities, respectively. Every state, county, city, Town, and village in this nation have sacrificed sons and daughters to protect and promote an idea called America. This is a 242 year-old ongoing idea. How can we, the living, thank those that have died in service to this nation, that have given the ultimate sacrifice, that of their lives?
 
We, the living, are doing so today - by being here, in Winsted’s East End Park, by surrounding this grandstand, by watching the preceding parade, by helping to place flags on the graves of veterans. But I specially must commend the young mothers and fathers here today. You have brought your children to the parade, or perhaps to see your son or daughter play in the The Gilbert School band. You are creating a tradition of respect and remembrance in your offspring that will keep these Memorial Day traditions alive.
 
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, emerged out of that national trauma, the Civil War. America lost hundreds of thousands of its citizens in this struggle; President Abraham Lincoln to an assassin’s bullet, local farm boys to battle wounds and disease, African-Americans striving to exchange their servitude for freedom, and  women such as Jenny Wade, shot through the back while baking bread in her home in Gettysburg, PA. All of them died in pursuit of or defending this uniquely American ideal that “... that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
 
One such local farm boy from Barkhamsted was Horace Messenger, husband of Martha A. Barnes and an ancestor of mine. His grave is located in Pine Grove Cemetery in Pine Meadow. He was a Union soldier who died at the notorious Confederate prison camp in Andersonville, GA. I always make a point of stopping by His stone as it is close to the headstone for my own grandparents.
 
Not far from his grave stone is the grave of Cheryl  Ann Monyak,  a local woman and graduate of NWR7, killed in the terror assaults of September 11,  2001. While not a member of the armed forces at the time, her death was part of a larger event that has sparked more sacrifices by Americans to preserve and protect our unique and singular freedoms from those whose cultural beliefs would deny us such freedoms. It is fitting to honor her also. This has been the case. Her name is among the thousands embossed on the panels of the 9/11 Memorial located on the site of the World Trade Center. Recently, several of us teachers at The Gilbert School took a number of our social studies students to New York City to observe, to honor and to remember what happened on September 11, 2001. I made it a point to show them Cheryl Monyak’s name.
 
Before you all leave this park today, I encourage you all to visit the memorials right here in Winsted. There is behind me a short distance the column dedicated to honor the citizens from the Town of Winchester killed in Vietnam. A short distance to my left is the memorial to the town’s WW II veterans. And directly in front of me is the Town’s monument to the Civil War. Please look at them all, and observe carefully the names of the Civil War battles engraved at the top. One in particular must have traumatized Winchester and the surrounding towns of Litchfield County in the late spring of 1864 - the Battle of Cold Harbor, Virginia. The Second Connecticut Volunteer Heavy Artillary Regiment, composed primarily of Litchfield County residents, was decimated. In total 323 men from the regiment were killed or wounded, many from Winsted and Winchester. You can visit that battlefield today and see the monument honoring the sacrifices made by the sons of local farm families and town dwellers.
 
Scattered about Winchester are other monuments to Winchester’s dead. There is the stone honoring the victims of the great 1955 flood. This monument is also located here in this park. One can go to Forest View Cemetery and in the middle of the cemetery is another monument to Winsted’s sons lost in the Civil War. In the West End Park is one honoring veterans of the Korean War, in the Central Cemetery across the street from us is a stone honoring Revolutionary War veterans.
 
But I would be remiss if I didn’ t mention the most distinguished monument of them all, the Soldiers’ Monument located at the end of Crown Street and above Hillside Avenue. This is the crown jewel of Winsted’ s memorials, a tribute from local residents to the monumental sacrifices of her young men to that idea of a perpetual American union of states dedicated to preserving and protecting “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
 
I encourage you all, to incorporate into your Memorial Day activities, a visit to our local cemeteries, to our local monuments. Before going to the picnic that honors the living, take your family, take your children. Honor your deceased family members and then explore the surrounding grounds. You will find monuments to amazing individuals. It is only through us, the living, that the memory of the dead, survive. Keep the true meaning of Memorial Day alive for future generations.
 
 
 
Memorial Day Poem winners:
First Place: Matt Madore, read poem at Memorial Day commemoration
 
Valor
Valor.
A bubble in the chest
Inflated with pride
For the country whose soil
Is just a letter away
Yet is a world away as well.
Trudging through the rain.
Valor.
Skin burned from the sweltering sun.
Valor.
Tragically beautiful
Beautifully tragic
Ripping at our minds
Tearing at our hearts
Are the memories
Of those names
That were forgotten to time
But never forgotten to stone.
Carved in the hearts of many
Valor.
It takes surmountable strength
To stand before an army
Unyielding
Feet firmly planted
Ready to defend all they love
Without hesitation
Valor
Through death
They live.
The soil of their home
Carries their names
The earth beneath our feet
Whispers tales of the brave
Who have passed
But never left
Valor
It takes a brave heart
It takes a sound mind
It takes immeasurable courage
To stand before the enemy
And fight until your body
Meets the earth again
Valor
Valor
VALOR.
And to those I say
To those that live under us
In the names engraved
In our hearts
And on the stones
Tributes to them
I say
Thank you.
To those under the flag
Those fallen yet risen
I say
You have unimaginable
Valor.


 
Second Place: Lena Teixeira
 
Here I am
Worrying over

• Grades
• Futures
• Social statuses

First world problems flourishing
About this that and the other thing
 
There you were
Worrying over

• Fighting
• Dying
• Sacrifices

For me to have the problems I’m having now
And not something far, far worse
 
 
 
Third Place: Sara Pluff
 
A father of four bows his head in silence, he hears the battle before him. Yet he listens to the cries of his children, their laughter, their cries, their calling for him in the distance. He can feel the weight of his youngest as she uses his chest as a pillow and his heart beat lulls her to sleep. His family is projected like a movie on the back of his eyelids as he uses his last breath to whisper one final “I love you” hoping it was loud enough to travel thousands of miles.
 
A daughter. A sister. A blank stare. A deep thought. Her mind travels to her broken family, pondering whether the love for her country was the real reason. Or maybe she just needed a distraction, a purpose. She questions her decision, but knowing it’s too late, she questions the future of the little boy who just maybe needed her more than Uncle Sam.
 
A young man. Broken. Lost. Forced. Focuses on the fearful feeling of once again disappointing his sergeant, who occasionally picks up the part time job of being his father. All those years of being scolded for reading, writing, and valuing intelligence instead of worshiping war. His final thought, as he bleeds out, is whether his father would be disappointed that his only son is scattered across the battlefield like all of those puzzles he confiscated from the once young and lively boy.
 
A mother of four bows her head in silence. Avoiding eye contact and the faces of her children. She doesn't want them to see her cry. She now has to be the brave parent their father once was. Even though her children are far too young to understand, they know that the reason for their father never returning was a good one. He will always be their hero and will forever live on in their hearts.
 
A single mother who has spent years fighting off her own Demons. A little boy who has been hurt way too many without a valid reason. Even though he’s just a young child he has learned to take care of himself from watching his older sister. His heart breaks every time, knowing he’ll never see her again. But he’s determined to be brave and make her proud, just as she did for him.
 
A sergeant A father. A bottle in one hand. Dog tags in the other. He takes a sip. Then another. He tries to swallow his pride, his regret, his pain. But alcohol will do he supposes. After years of war, living, breathing, barely sleeping, each battle. This is the first time he starts to regret dedicating his life, and his only son’s, to war. He wishes he could hold his son one last time, just to tell him that he is proud of him. But now the only thing left is a box full of old memories and the remains of his only bloodline.

Another overlooked holiday, We are taught from a young age to honor the fallen soldier who have died to protect us. Some people view it as another day off. An excuse to sleep on. Or even a day to honor something that they don't believe in. But regardless, it does not matter whether you believe in war, what age you are, your gender, sexual orientation, or race. We need to remember that those aren't just soldiers. Those were real people with real lives that they gave up to ensure the safety of ours. This is dedicated to every fallen soldier and their loved ones, you'll always be in our hearts.