The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
HONORING SERVICE
Ceremony pays tribute to those who have served in the military
MIDDLETOWN — Veterans Day is not about playing hooky or getting that longed-for TV at a discount, according to a speaker at one ceremony in the city.
Thomas Saadi, acting commissioner for the state Department of Veterans Affairs, was the main speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony at the state veterans cemetery Saturday. A veteran himself, Saadi described the difficult conditions faced by people in the armed forces.
“We know that not a day passes without an American service member suffering frigid cold, searing heat, deprivation of food and water and imminent threat of injury or death so the American principals of freedom and democracy may endure,” he said.
“As we leave here today, let us all remember that Veterans Day is not about a day off from work or school or about 50 percent off at the department store, but it is instead about honoring those who served and supporting them today, to-
morrow and every day of the year,” he said.
Mayor Dan Drew, who also spoke, recalled the history of Veterans Day and its beginnings as Armistice Day Nov. 11, 1918, with the signing of the armistice that ended World War I in Compiègne, France.
“That was supposed to be the war to end all wars, the war to make war obsolete, but that didn’t happen,” Drew said.
Drew spoke of World War II and the wars after that, and the men and women “out there protecting us and protecting our way of life.”
Despite the cold temperatures, there was a large gathering at the ceremony, with a tent set up on the cemetery grounds full and several people standing outside it.
Mike Rogalsky of the Middletown Council of Veterans and a chaplain laid a wreath during the ceremony, and American Legion Post 156 of East Haddam gave a four-gun salute.
Larry Riley, commander American Legion Post 75, who officiated the ceremony, noted that the cold weather did not keep a good number of folks from attending. “These people always turn out for our veterans,” he said.
Riley was also pleased at the young singer who performed the National Anthem. Hazel Pufahl, 8, of Ashford, sang despite recovering from illness.
“Hazel was sick yesterday, and woke up this morning and said she’s going to do it,” Riley said when he introduced her, adding that he was proud of her commitment.
Riley, a veteran of the Vietnam conflict, recalled how different it was for veterans when he returned home in the 1960s. “When we came home, we had to sneak home,” he said.
Peter Galgano, veteran of the U.S. Marines, had similar memories. He refused to wear his uniform for decades after returning home from Vietnam, he said. “I didn’t admit to being a veteran. I hung up my uniform and didn’t put it on for 33 years.”
He was asked to participate in a parade in 2003 and put it on for the first time since he had worn it in Vietnam.
“People were cheering every single street over,” he said. “I had tears in my eyes.”
After that, he began wearing it again.
Galgano is part of the crew that puts flags on the graves at the veterans cemetery every year before Veterans Day and returns two weeks later to remove them.
At the grave of his sonin-law, Joseph Potvin Jr. showed how the American flag is always placed on the right side of the stone, and state or service flags are placed to the left.
Karen Uberti, commander Middletown Council of Veterans, also helps put up and take down the flags.
“I love when we put them up and when we take them down,” she said. “It just restores (the cemetery). It’s like spring cleaning.”
The flags are also put up for two weeks around Memorial Day.