Veterans fewer, but tributes endure at Harvey Wheeler Memorial Day Breakfast
Those who have served gathered to remember those they’ve lost.
Veterans Services Officer Dick Krug honors the town’s late service members by placing small American flags on their graves.
In places like Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, it can be a walk among familiar names.
“I know them all,” he said.
Those who have served gathered on May 21 to remember those they’ve lost as part of a Memorial Day Breakfast at the Harvey Wheeler Community Center.
This year’s event was “very nice,” retired Navy Capt. Charles Davis told The Acton Bridge.
At 101 years old, he’s one of only a few World War II vets left in Acton’s dwindling veteran community.
Davis was among a group of about 40 people at the Harvey Wheeler breakfast. Willard Elementary School students stopped by with thank-you notes. Resident Jerry Hurley tapped out tunes on an old piano and led the singing of “God Bless America.”
John Martinson, who served two tours in Vietnam, doffed his Marine Corps cap for the meal. He said he lost a cousin in the conflict and enlisted because he “just wanted to honor him.”
He recalled a “pretty good-sized Marine contingent” from Acton. “We were all young and full of vinegar,” he said.
Some vets have passed on. Others moved away at least in part because they could no longer afford to live here, Martinson said.
For years, Krug has worked to help veterans get services and benefits to which they’re entitled.
When he started, he had roughly 1,500 former military members in town, he told The Bridge. These days, he said, there are fewer than 500.
The numbers keep dropping, he said, and “this is what’s really bothering me.”
Saying a prayer
Maynard Forbes served as Acton’s Patriots Day parade marshal and was set to oversee Monday’s more solemn Memorial Day ceremonies.
Local observances took place alongside ongoing tensions in the Middle East. “I know what it is to be overseas and involved,” Forbes said, recalling his more than two decades of Army service.
Martinson said he asks God to protect those in harm’s way.
“He did a good job with me,” he said.
Concordian Tracie Casner said during the breakfast, she thought of her father, who died at 55 due to wounds he suffered as a World War II Army pilot.
She stopped by Forbes and Davis’ table near the end of the event and asked to pluck a bouquet of red daisies and baby’s breath from the centerpiece.
Casner’s dad is buried in Lincoln, she said. She planned to lay the flowers at his grave.
“He needs more recognition,” she said.
