Memorial Day: Honoring the fallen, diving into history
May 30, 2023 | By Lisa ScagliottiMemorial Day on Monday saw Waterbury’s annual observance take place nearby in Holy Cross Cemetery in Duxbury. Members of the American Legion Post #59 visited several Waterbury cemeteries beforehand, placing wreaths by monuments to U.S. service veterans.
They then gathered at the Duxbury cemetery where a crowd of about 50 or so people were in attendance for a short program that featured Legion Commander Wayne Goulet along with both its Color Guard and Rifle Guard. Veteran Chris Wood played “Taps” several times throughout the morning at the various graveyards. Singer Cara Hill added a rendition of “America the Beautiful” at the Duxbury event as well.
After the ceremony honoring service members, the Waterbury Historical Society conducted its annual Ghost Walk presentation with a focus on immigrant history in the community.
Click to enlarge photos and see captions. Photos by Mike Woodard.
Goulet’s remarks included sharing an address for Memorial Day by Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau.
“On Memorial Day, we remember the men and women who fought and died for our Nation. We remember their courage, their strength, and their dedication. We remember their actions, their achievements, and their words. We remember the lives cut short, the families left behind, and the futures that would never be. As we remember those who laid down their lives, we must also remember why.
We pledge to support and defend our Constitution. We pledge allegiance to our flag. But our Nation is not built on words and fabric, but the actions of a courageous few—men and women who defended our ideals, protected our lands and our people, and established order around the world. These accomplishments were neither granted nor given; our service members fought and died for them. Their sacrifice was in the service of something bigger: our Nation, our people, and our future.
When we remember what the fallen have given us, when we remember why they served, when we remember what they gave up so we could be free, merely saying “thank you” has a thin and hollow ring. Instead, we must honor their lives and their memory, telling their stories and keeping their legacies alive. But most of all, we must continue to live and serve with honor, so we may be a Nation worthy of their sacrifice.”
Goulet connected the day to Vermont, noting that at Camp Johnson in Colchester, a memorial commemorates 14 Vermont National Guard soldiers who died while serving in the global war on terrorism. He highlighted two of those soldiers in particular: Tristan Southworth and Steven Deluzio, both killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 22, 2010.
Deluzio, 25, was a staff sergeant from Connecticut, and Southworth was a specialist from Vermont. They died during a firefight with insurgents, Goulet said, becoming the 12th and 13th members of the Vermont National Guard killed in combat since the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Southworth was a four-sport athlete and student at Hazen Union High School in Hardwick where he graduated in 2007, joining the guard a year later. Southworth spent a year in college in Colorado and returned to Vermont for his deployment with the Guard. “Southworth planned to resume his college career after his deployment and hoped to play baseball at the college level,” Goulet said.
Deluzio graduated in 2003 from Glastonbury High School in Connecticut and from the University of Hartford in 2009 with a degree in accounting. He was engaged to be married less than a month after his death, Goulet said.
“Let us take a moment to remember and reflect on Tristan Southworth’s and Steven Deluzio’s ultimate sacrifice. Our country is the greatest nation in the world today because of the actions of heroes such as Southworth and Deluzio,” Goulet told the crowd.
Click the photos below to enlarge and read captions.
For the Waterbury Historical Society program, four presenters were stationed around Holy Cross Cemetery at a gravesite of family members for each of the families whose stories would be shared. Attendees divided into four groups to then rotate through each short talk for about another hour.
Three of the presentations focused on Irish immigrants to Vermont who settled in Duxbury, Waterbury and Moretown nearby. Stephen Grace shared stories and photos of his ancestors from Grace and Healy families. Mark Morse told of his heritage connected with the Callahan family. Vermont historian, educator and author Vince Feeney offered context about Vermont immigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries in a third presentation. Spurred on by famine and a prohibition that Catholics were unable to own land, Irish immigrants sought and found prosperity in Canada and the United States, Feeney explained.
Waterbury resident Kathryn Grace presented a more modern immigrant family story of the Bosinan Kadric family who settled in Waterbury in the 1990s. Fleeing war and persecution, they sought to unite their family and find safe and peaceful home to start a new life. Grace spoke at the graveside of Samir Kadric who in 1997 at the age of 22 tragically died in a car crash on his way home with his father to Waterbury from a night shift job at Cabot Creamery in Cabot. Grace told of how community members accommodated the first Muslim burial in the Catholic cemetery as a way to support a new family in their time of grief.
Stephen Grace summed up the collective effort behind the Ghost Walk stories: “There is a lesson in this tale: it is a mistake to stereotype people. It saddens me to hear people today who deride and dehumanize modern day immigrants - we Irish folk should know better from our own family histories.”
A family tradition
Three generations of the Woodard family put up American flags on Main Street on May 25, ahead of Memorial Day. Mike Woodard (right) with grandson Coby Gillander and daughter Reney Woodard. Mike Woodard said more will be added ahead of the annual Not Quite Independence Day celebration. They will remain up through Veterans Day in November. Courtesy photo