The names of Harvard’s past veterans can be found on monuments throughout the town, but more than 253 veterans, according to the most recent U.S census, are living members of the community today.
Those veterans will be honored this week and next by events at the Hildreth Elementary School and the Center on the Common.
School assembly honors vets with songs, readings
The Nov. 8 events at HES include a tea in honor of the town’s veterans, followed by a schoolwide assembly. Guidance counselor Christine Reale, who has helped to organize the event, told the Press that the assembly will include a message from the troops, arranged by kindergarten teacher Melissa Niland. Niland’s sister, Master Staff Sgt. Tammi Farnsworth of the U.S. Air Force, is sending a video message from Ft. Bragg, N.C., where she is currently stationed. Last year, Farnsworth’s message came from overseas, where she was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Army veteran Karen Adams of Slough Road will read from “The White Table,” a children’s book by Margot Theis Raven. It tells of the one-person table, covered with a white tablecloth, that has been set in many military dining halls since the end of the Vietnam War to honor missing, fallen, or imprisoned service members. Each item on the table holds symbolic meaning.
Adams said in an interview that she was “a Devens baby,” having been born on Fort Devens while her father was an active-duty National Guard member there. Her grandfather helped build the Devens base while he was a civilian engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. Adams herself was on active duty in the Army for 10 years, during which time she served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, as well as in other locations; afterward she remained in the Army Reserve, rising to the rank of major. Adams’ son, fifth-grader Dallas Adams, will play taps for the ceremony.
All elementary grades will present songs during the assembly, with first- and second-graders singing “God Bless the U.S.A.” and third-graders singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Fourth- and fifth-graders will sing “Thank You, Soldiers.” In preparation for the assembly, all classes at HES have written letters to wounded soldiers in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
As in past years, veterans can go to classrooms after the assembly to talk with students, as time permits.
Ceremony to honor Harvard Veterans of the Year
On Veterans Day itself (Monday), there will be a ceremony at the Center on the Common, conducted by the Office of Veterans’ Services. Veterans’ agent Dennis Lyddy says that seating will start at 10 a.m. The ceremony will begin at 11 a.m., the hour at which the guns fell silent in the armistice that ended World War I on November 11, 1918.
The annual Veteran of the Year award will be presented to co-recipients Major (Ret). Steven M. Cronin and Nancy J. F. Cronin, a former major in the U.S. Army. Lyddy noted that the award is known as the “PJ” in honor of Paul Johnston, who was commander of the American Legion Post and a leader in Harvard’s veterans’ community for many years.
In past years, according to Lyddy, the ceremony has sometimes been the occasion for presenting local vets with long-sought medals. He praised the involvement of the Girl Scouts, who lead the veterans into the gathering and arrange for the refreshments.
Lyddy to leave Harvard
This will be Lyddy’s last Veterans Day as veterans’ agent for Harvard, a position he has held for more than seven years, since August 2006. Lyddy served in the Army “for 20 years and 22 days,” as he puts it.
Asked about the job of veterans’ agent, Lyddy says, “The first and primary responsibility is to get veterans any federal benefits to which they are entitled. Next is to get them the state benefits they have earned.”
“Here’s the good news,” Lyddy continued. “There’s much more available for veterans now than there was after World War II or Korea.” He said that veterans’ programs have expanded since the attacks on September 11, 2001, and that the Boston area offers excellent health care that veterans can access.
Lyddy describes his years in Harvard as “very rewarding.” As he reviewed his time here, he found that he had helped to secure benefits “to the tune of $2 million” for local veterans.
Although he has no specific plans as to what he will do next, Lyddy says he will still have an association with Harvard. “It is a beautiful community,” he said, “and a very, very powerful veterans’ community.”
Note: In the print version of this story, the Press incorrectly reported that Harvard Veterans Agent Dennis Lyddy had served in the Air Force, not the Army, the branch in which he actually served. During his time in Harvard, Lyddy secured about $2 million in benefits for local veterans, not the $7 million we originally reported.
