Around Town

PHOTOS: New Canaan Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony

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For U.S. Marines Major Charles Paksi—a decorated veteran with three combat deployments to Somalia and Afghanistan—there’s one word that captures what motivated his friend Domingo Arroyo Jr. on Jan. 12th, 1993. The men were part of an 11-member patrol near the Mogadishu airport in Somalia as part of an effort to feed the hungry there, and Arroyo, a 21-year-old private and already a veteran of The Gulf War, had about four months left before his discharge. 

“An hour into the patrol, the children and civilians dispersed, creating an uneasy silence,” Paksi told about 250 people gathered Monday in Lakeview Cemetery on a sunny and comfortable morning. He continued: “The enemy subsequently executed a textbook ambush—gunfire erupted from the buildings to our left and right and our rear. We were being baited into the obvious action: Move through the intersection to the front.

Around Town

New Canaanites Gather at Lakeview Cemetery To Honor Veterans 

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Dozens of New Canaanites gathered at Lakeview Cemetery on Saturday to plant more than 1,500 flags honoring every locally interred veteran who has served the United States in both combat and non-combat positions. Organized on behalf of VFW Post 653 by New Canaanites Chris and Frances Wilson, the community event saw residents come together on a beautiful May morning to honor our veterans. “This is one of the greatest events the town puts on,” Post 653 Commander Mike McGlinn said. “There are about 200 people and 20 community groups who come together to help out the VFW… It’s a tremendous thing for a small town like New Canaan to have this done.”

The New Canaan Fire Department, New Canaan Police Department, Boy Scout troops 45, 31 and 70, Cub Scout packs 70, 45 and 7, Girl Scouts of New Canaan, SLOBs, Democratic and Republican Town Committees, New Canaan YMCA, New Canaan Chapter of the National Charity League, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The gravestones with flags is the setting in which the annual Memorial Day observance ceremony is held.

Around Town

PHOTOS: 2023 Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony

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Prior to Memorial Day this year, it had been 10 years since New Canaan’s John McLane addressed a crowd that gathered to remember and honor our nation’s war dead. 

A U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, McLane observed in a keynote address during VFW Post 653’s annual Memorial Day ceremony held Monday in Lakeview Cemetery that “much has changed, not all for the better.”

“Today, divisions are growing,” McLane told more than 350 residents gathered at the cemetery on a sunny, breezy morning following the Memorial Day Parade. 

“Traditions and values are being called into question,” he continued. “Yet I would respectfully suggest that in the quiet, serene settings like this one all across America, citizens can still come together and feel a renewed sense of unity and purpose, harmony and hope. This is what makes today, Memorial Day, so special. We honor the people in New Canaan cemeteries, not for their fame and fortune, not for their achievements, but what they so generously gave: Their faithful service in, for some, their highest and last full measure of devotion.”

McLane called Memorial Day “the most expensive day on the calendar.”

“Throughout history, those who go into harm’s way have asked two questions,” he said. “First, will I die today?

Around Town

New Canaan Marks Veterans Day with VFW-Led Ceremony at Town Hall

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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.

Board of Finance

VFW Puts Out Call for Volunteers on Saturday; Town Poised To Deny $15,000 Request

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Members of the local VFW are calling on volunteers to help with an effort in Lakeview Cemetery this weekend. At 8 a.m. Saturday, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Howard M. Bossa and Peter C. Langenus Post 653 will pick up the 1,300 flags placed beside veterans’ gravestones at the cemetery in advance of Memorial Day, according to VFW Commander Francis “Mike” McGlinn, an artillery officer during the Vietnam War. “We checked with Arlington National and with the State of Connecticut VFW, and the protocol is to remove the flags before they become worn and disrespected,” McGlinn said. “Arlington does it the week after Memorial Day. An additional reason for us to pick them up now is so we can use them again next year and save $1,500.”

Those willing to help with the effort are asked to meet at 8 a.m. on July 16 near the “veterans area” of the cemetery, located off of the Main Street entrance, over the bridge and on the right-hand side of the main road through Lakeview Cemetery. 

The collection comes as town officials are poised to deny the VFW’s request for $15,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds. 

During a public hearing before the Town Council last fall, VFW member John McLane, a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam, said the organization had spent a great deal of money in recent years on the veterans’ plaques that hang inside the northern entrance to Town Hall.