OPEN THREAD: Veterans Day 2014

by | Nov 11, 2014 | Newton | 6 comments

To our veterans:  Thank you for having served, sacrificed and put your lives on hold for us.

6 Comments

  2. Marti
    Marti on November 11, 2014 at 1:12 pm

    To our Veterans, thank you and here’s to you getting the benefits you deserve and any help you might need. And here’s to the father I had in WWII and Korea and the husband I had in Viet Nam. Enjoy your free meal today.

  3. Jim Cote
    Jim Cote on November 11, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    A big thank you to the Mayor and his staff for putting together a memorable Veterans Day family event. Veterans Day celebrations are dying out in the state, but not in Newton where this years event was bigger than last year.
    Moving keynote address by Tom Mountain put everything into perspective!!!

  4. Emily Norton
    Emily Norton on November 11, 2014 at 4:58 pm

    Kudos to the Mayor and staffpersons who put on a terrific Veteran’s Day event this morning at the Post 440, including Bob DeRubeis and Mark Kelly of Parks & Rec, and Meaghan Maher from the Mayor’s office. It was standing room only. Special guests included Steve Ross who spent 5 years in 10 different concentration camps, and his rescuer from Dachau, Sam Robbins. Truly unbelievable to have them both there in person. (Mr Ross’s daughter works for the City of Newton and his son serves as a city councilor in Boston.)

    Also present was Wendy Rocca, founder of Operation American Soldier, who organized a station where kids could send notes to soldiers currently serving overseas. This was the highlight for my 3 kids. (Well that and the hot cocoa)

  5. BOB BURKE
    BOB BURKE on November 11, 2014 at 5:18 pm

    Fifty years ago this month, I returned to the US after more than 4 years overseas with the U.S. Navy. I was so very fortunate that I was in after Korea and out just before Vietnam really heated up. I have several friends in Washington who are Vietnam Veterans and they have been kind enough to invite me to some of their ceremonies and dinners. My closest friend organized a Vietnam Veteran’s Poetry Group that composes and reads poetry at the Vietnam Monument every Memorial Day and Veteran Day. But they have carried scars and have a tremendously deep bonding from all of this that my Navy reunions can’t come close to matching. Like Anil, I, too, was moved by Tom Mountain’s Veteran’s Day article in the Tab and by the many other fine things he has composed about veterans and military service over the years. I had a conflicting obligation today, but I hope they repeat this next year.

  6. Christopher
    Christopher on November 12, 2014 at 8:41 am

    Thanks for the article. As a Veteran, it’s good to know people still give a damn.

    My parents – Dad having been a WWII and Korean war veteran – are buried in the Newton Center cemetery.