Around Town

PHOTOS, VIDEO: New Canaan Memorial Day Parade 2015

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New Canaan’s Boyd Harden gained his greatest appreciation for what Memorial Day means in 1995, about one year after flying dozens of international relief missions to Somalia as a U.S. Marine Corps aviator and officer. As a member of the “Thundering Third”—the third battalion, fourth Marines—the 1983 NCHS graduate went to the island of Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island that had seen some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II in February and March 1945. Addressing hundreds of New Canaanites gathered at Lakeview Cemetery for a solemn ceremony following the annual Memorial Day Parade on Main Street, Harden asked the crowd to envision what those Marines had faced in what would be a pivotal battle of WWII. Imagine, Harden said, that loaded with 120 pounds of combat gear, it was the job of those gathered to get from Lakeview Cemetery to the water towers at Waveny, with 22,000 Japanese soldiers lying in wait in every home along the way. “They [the Japanese] have been practicing for months and their sole intention is to kill all of us,” Harden said.

News

Police Chief: Supporting True Veterans Organizations as Memorial Day Approaches

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[Leon M. Krolikowski is Chief of Police in the town of New Canaan.]

Each and every day the men and women of the New Canaan Police Department protect and serve our Town. On May 25, Memorial Day, we honor those who pledged to protect and serve our great country and in the process made the ultimate sacrifice. As Memorial Day approaches, it’s a good time to remind the good and patriotic citizens of New Canaan to be aware of phony organizations who “solicit” on behalf of Veterans. Each year we receive complaints about scams that victimize New Canaan residents and some of these scams are initiated by those purporting to be “Veterans.”

Last year, prior to the 4th of July, Peter Langenus, the Commander of New Canaan’s Veterans of Foreign War Post 653 received a telephone call from a shopper who had been approached for a money donation in front of the Food Emporium. The shopper thought that the solicitor’s military uniform seemed to be a mismatch of different uniforms and of different branches of the service.

Around Town

New Canaan VFW Calls for Donations to Support Wreath Placements on Graves of Veterans Buried in Town

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The local Veterans of Foreign Wars post is calling for New Canaanites to support its effort to place a year on the gravestone of those who have served and buried in New Canaan. This year, some 985 wreaths were placed on the grave sites veterans from the French and Indian War, Revolutionary War, Civil War, First and Second World Wars, Korean War and Vietnam War, for a total cost of more than $,9000, according to town resident Peter C. Langenus, commander of New Canaan VFW Post 653, who served as a U.S. Army captain in Vietnam and as a colonel during Operation Desert Storm. “Not one penny or dollar of taxpayer money is used to fund this annual project,” Langenus said. “The cost of this annual project increases each year as the number of veterans honored increases each year.”

Many New Canaanites will know Langenus, who has helped to lead solemn services following the Memorial Day parade as well as on Veterans Day. Langenus and the VFW are asking locals to donate to the VFW in order to support the nonprofit organization’s wreath program, launched many years ago with the New Canaan Exchange Club.

Around Town

VIDEO: 2014 New Canaan Memorial Day Parade, Service

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New Canaan Memorial Day Parade, May 26, 2014
Uploaded by Michael Dinan on 2014-05-26. The video above (there’s also a slideshow here) features clips from New Canaan’s 2014 Memorial Day Parade—held on a picture-perfect, clear and warm spring day—as well as from the solemn, dignified ceremony at Lakeview Cemetery that followed. There, we heard from the Rev. Eric Fjeldal of the United Methodist Church on South Avenue, as well as First Selectman Rob Mallozzi, Peter Langenus, commander of VFW Post 653, and guest speaker Gary Macintyre of New Canaan, a U.S. Navy veteran. Wreaths were placed at the bottom of a flagpole later lowered to half-mast in honor of the United States’ fallen military members, including by Grand Marshal John Wilson. In introducing Macintyre, Mallozzi described him as both a “longtime New Canaan resident and small business owner.”

Macintyre started his career in the U.S. Navy as a reservist, Mallozzi said, and after graduating from Norwalk Community College he went on to active duty as a petty officer in navigation on board the USS Grand Canyon.