Around Town
New Canaan Marks Veterans Day with VFW-Led Ceremony at Town Hall
|
When he was a young man growing up in Seattle and thinking about joining the military, U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey Erickson’s father mentioned that his own uncle—Walter “Bud” Anderson—had been in the Navy during World War II. Erickson, now director of the Army Cyber Institute at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y, decided to delve into the family history.
He discovered that his great-uncle Bud had been aboard the USS Nevada in Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941—the day the Japanese attacked the United States, drawing the nation into the war.
Reciting his great-uncle’s experience that day in Bud’s own words, Erickson told more than 100 people gathered at Town Hall for New Canaan’s annual Veterans Day ceremony about the moment a soldier came on deck with distressing news. “He was all shook up and said the Japanese planes were bombing the ships,” Erickson said, relaying his great-uncle Bud’s own words before the rapt attendees, which included local veterans, members of VFW Post 653, New Canaan Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel, municipal workers, representatives from the Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and others.