More than 100 townspeople gathered on the Common Memorial Day morning—as they have every year since 1868—to honor the men and women of Harvard who lost their lives while serving in the country’s armed services. The air was chilly and the sky overcast. Onlookers were spritzed from time to time with a fine rain more mist than shower.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jon Schoenberg of Harris Lane, who delivered this year’s keynote address, reminded listeners that for those who had lost friends and family, “every day is memorial day.”
Air Force Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Jon Schoenberg delivers the Memorial Day address. (Photo by Lisa Aciukewicz) MORE PHOTOS
“Even if you don’t have a personal connection to a fallen hero,” Schoenberg said, “all you have to do is listen. Listen … and you will hear their legacy all around you. It is us. … We are their legacy.”
This year’s observance began with a community pancake breakfast in Fellowship Hall, hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Church, and was followed by Harvard’s traditional parade to the town’s war graves and a ceremony on the Common. Attendance at the breakfast approached 100, according to organizers, with proceeds going to Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry in Devens. Parade participants gathered shortly before 10 a.m. at Town Hall, while spectators gathered along Fairbank Street and next to the Civil War memorial, its landscaping freshly tended by Garden Club member Kathy Jackson of Jacob Gates Road.
The parade began promptly at 10 a.m. Retired Army Maj. Steve Cronin led the way, wearing fatigues while calling cadences and formations. A color guard and more than a dozen veterans followed, dressed in a variety of uniforms, and they were followed by a dozen Harvard firefighters, wearing their dress black uniforms and caps. Also present were members of Harvard’s Girl Scout, Cub Scout, and Boy Scout troops and the marching band of the Immaculate Heart of Mary School in Still River, directed by Brother Peter Mary.
The parade stopped at each town monument, first the Civil War memorial on Fairbank Street, where the original 1868 order establishing a day of remembrance for fallen Civil War soldiers was read. Then it was on to the Town Center Cemetery, with spectators trailing behind, where Cub Scouts and other children placed potted geraniums at the graves of veterans. The parade continued from the cemetery first to the World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War monument and then to the World War I monument and flagpole where the day’s ceremony was held.
‘Our highest gratitude’
At each stop, a veteran stepped forward to place a wreath, and two members of the Immaculate Heart band, Patricia Duffy of Shirley and Mark Dion of Pepperell, played echo taps. At the ceremony on the Common, retired Army Lt. Col. Dan Adams delivered a prayer, and attendees sang the national anthem. Following Schoenberg’s keynote, speech, Harvard Boy Scout Matthew Atwell read the name and Scout Dallas Briggs-Adams tolled a bell for each of the 11 Harvard veterans who had died since Memorial Day 2017 (see list below).
The day’s ceremonies concluded with the placing of wreaths and the playing of taps at the Cpl. Skillings memorial in Still River and at the veterans memorial and flagpole at Bellevue Cemetery, where parade members finally dispersed.
In his address, Schoenberg paid tribute to a Harvard soldier and to a Marine pilot with a Harvard connection: Army Pvt. Edward Enoch Thomas, who died in July 1918 of wounds suffered in the battle at Château-Thierry, France, and Marine Capt. Sean Elliott, an aviator and the husband of Bromfield graduate Catherine Johnson; he was killed in a 2017 accident while flying a training mission. Schoenberg asked his listeners to remember that not every military death was by enemy gunfire. Lives had been lost “in battle, in training, and in rehabilitating the wounded.” Sometimes, he said, “service to our great nation requires great risk, even for members who are far from the combat zone.” Regardless of the circumstances, “families remember their fallen loved ones every day. They can still hear the voices of those they have lost. And it is up to us to hear the voices of these families, offer our support, and express our highest gratitude.”
Since last year’s Memorial Day, the final roll call of those who served in military uniform on behalf of all citizens past, present, and future, has grown longer. We recognize these former Harvard residents and relatives of Harvard residents who died during the past 12 months.
Jerome Christopher Callahan Jr., U.S. Army
Sister Joan Maria Cobb, U.S. Coast Guard
George Henry Cote Jr., U.S. Navy
Roland Thomas Cotton, U.S. Navy
William J. Donnelly, U.S. Navy
James A. Dunlap Jr., U.S. Army
Matthew Elison Hadad, U.S. Navy
Stanley Casemer Jaksina, U.S. Marine Corps
Carl N. Madia, U.S. Army
Kenneth H. McNamara, U.S. Navy
Melvin R. Wrangham, U.S. Navy
Note: Omitted from this year’s ceremony was
Warren E. Hathaway, U.S. Army, who died May 28, Memorial Day.
