New Canaan Marks Veterans Day in Ceremony at Town Hall

Though the many ways that civilians thank U.S. military veterans are right and appropriate—parades, observances, moments of silence and simple thank-you’s, for example—the most complete ways to honor those who have served must deliver both recognition and lasting empowerment, one active serviceman said Wednesday.

The United States currently counts about 50,000 homeless veterans—a group that is susceptible to suicide at a 50 percent higher rate than civilians, according to statistics cited by Lt. Todd Kniffen, who commands an officer candidate company of 100 young men and women in Newport, R.I., and whose mother lives here in New Canaan.

“Indeed, more veterans have been lost to suicide than have been killed in combat operations since the global War on Terror began,” Kniffen told more than 100 people (many of them in uniform) gathered in the Town Meeting Room for the community’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony, moved inside from its usual location by the Wayside Cross at God’s Acre due to foul weather.

“Raise awareness of these facts, volunteer your time and resources to causes that fight these trends. By doing so I promise that you gain, for the world and for the nation, a person whose core motivation is duty and service. Understand that every apparently broken veteran you see, every homeless veteran you pass on a city street, every ‘hopeless’ veteran that did not come home with all of the limbs he left with, is still a man or woman whose life is driven by duty and purpose.”

Led by VFW Post 653 Commander Peter C. Langenus, a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam who also served as a colonel during Operation Desert Storm, the observance included the Pledge of Allegiance, presentation of colors by the New Canaan Police Department Color Guard—Capt. John DiFederico, Sgt. Aaron LaTourette and Officers Christopher Dewey and Jason Kim—prayers led by chaplain John McLane, a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, remarks from First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, a presentation from Diane Wells, regent of the Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, playing of “Taps” and a remembrance of local veterans who lost their lives since Veterans Day last year.

Read aloud by Langenus, that list included 47 names, up from just four two years ago and 21 last year—many of them familiar to most New Canaanites, including Erik Dam, John Gesualdi, Rob Mallozzi Jr., Raymond Parry and Walter Stewart Jr.

Wells during her remarks described the 5-pillar Anthem Veterans Memorial in Anthem, Ariz., which at 11:11 a.m. each Nov. 11—the “11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month,” which marks the moment the Armistice with Germany that ended World War I went into effect—shines a perfect light on a mosaic that represents the U.S. military.

“Our military heroes have worked together throughout history and continue today to keep our country safe,” Wells told the crowd, which included some 20 members of the local DAR chapter.

Mallozzi during his remarks said that by this time next year, the bronze plaques honoring New Canaanites who have lost their lives while serving in the U.S. military will grace the new, northern entrance to Town Hall, thanks to the VFW, Exchange Club of New Canaan and the town.

Those who gave their lives “will be back in the honorable place they deserve when you walk into Town Hall,” the first selectman said.

In introducing Kniffen, Mallozzi said the young man graduated in 2009 from Gettysburg College and continued a family tradition by joining the Armed Forces—his grandfather had served with the U.S. Navy in World War II and his father had been in the U.S. Air Force, Mallozzi said.

Kniffen himself had his first sea assigning after being commissioned in 2010, as an electronics division officer on USS San Antonio, an amphibious assault ship, Mallozzi said. He also was deployed to the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, and performed relief work in the continental United States in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Kniffen next would serve aboard the USS Stout, on two ballistic missile deterrent cruises, and while serving, participated in the retaking of a hijacked ship off of the coast of Libya, the first selectman said.

For Kniffen, on Veterans Day, those accomplishments take a back seat to what he called the “great privilege” of his active service: “Observing how remarkable the young American of every generation truly is when they answer the call.”

“Despite the hardships, a member of the military has the rare privilege of seeing and understanding their fellow man at their very best,” Kniffen said.

Referring to veterans who have returned to the United States and become homeless or perhaps struggled to continue in civilian life, Kniffen said: “Those who need our help make us better in the higher virtues that they provoke in us. That is the guiding principle that the young American pursues when he signs away a piece of his youth in exchange for the trust of a nation, and that is the mentality we all must adopt when we see them in need. Especially since that need is only skin deep, a veneer that will soon be shed once an ability to perform their duty is returned to them. Our support of them, and our belief in them, throughout their lives, is the true honor. We honor them with a basic understanding by us, the citizenry, that the veteran has not chosen to live his or her life with credit as the prime motivation, but rather with duty as the driving force, and that we should do all we can to ensure that power is continuously deployed.”

Note: Led by the VFW, the community is invited to help place 1,000 wreaths in cemeteries throughout New Canaan on the gravestone of every veteran buried here. Those interested in assisting with this effort should come to Lakeview Cemetery at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 28 (the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend).