High honor in Southie tribute
Six visiting Medal of Honor recipients, including the Hub’s own Thomas G. Kelley, were humbly recognized yesterday at services for the 34th anniversary of the South Boston Vietnam Memorial — a sobering slab of black granite immortalizing 25 of the neighborhood’s fallen sons, but which is widely credited with bringing long-overdue honor to all veterans of the controversial conflict.
“I swear that’s what changed the tide,” Kelley, 76, said of the Vietnam memorial — the nation’s first — made possible by a grass-roots fundraising effort spearheaded by the men’s surviving enlisted friends, including retired U.S. Marine Thomas J. Lyons, yesterday’s host.
Dozens of residents and dignitaries, among them Gov. Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, filled Medal of Honor Park at M Street and East Broadway following a special Mass at St. Brigid Church. Music was provided by the Massachusetts National Guard’s 215th Army Band.
Kelley, retired commissioner of the state Department of Veterans Services and a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, earned the Medal of Honor when he lost an eye to rocket fire in the Vietnam War while continuing to lead a multivessel mission to save an infantry company trapped on the Ong Muong Canal.
The city last week hosted its third Medal of Honor Society Convention. Walsh noted they told their stories to students and met with leaders and residents alike.
“You touched so many lives this week, all of you, and I want to thank you for that,” Walsh said.
Baker praised Lyons “for waving the flag and keeping the faith for all of their friends all of these years.”
He told the six recipients, “There will always be a welcome mat out for you if and when you ever want to come to Boston or Massachusetts. You honor us with your presence. You honor us with your service.”
Baker, Lyons told the crowd, is the state’s first sitting governor to grace the annual tribute. Baker told the Herald. “For me, it wasn’t a close call.”