The morning rain cancelled the Memorial Day parade in Holyoke, but the ceremony to honor the nation's fallen proceeded in the War Memorial building.
George E. Hogan, a World War II veteran, sits with a group from the Holyoke Soldiers' Home during the city's Memorial Day ceremony at the War Memorial building on Monday. Hogan was recognized for his service during the event.HOLYOKE – In a Memorial Day ceremony Monday, Holyoke honored a native son Marine whose name was added to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C. last year and rededicated its restored Civil War monument.
Outdoor parts of the ceremony like the scheduled parade downtown and placing of wreaths at monuments were cancelled because of the morning rain.
The event with honor guard, the Holyoke Caledonian Bagpipe Band and officials’ remarks was held in the War Memorial building at Appleton and Maple streets.
The main speaker was Paul Barabani, of Chicopee, who began as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home March 7. He is a retired Army National Guard colonel.
Barabani said he was humbled to stand before the war veterans, which included Soldiers’ Home residents.
“Thank you for your service,” Barabani said.
Marine Lance Cpl. Clayton K. Hough Jr. died in 2004 at 55, having returned from the Vietnam War in 1969 without his legs after a landmine exploded.
“To his country, he was a hero. To all, he was an inspiration,” said Deborah A. Malek, city veterans services director.
Hough lived five years longer than doctors predicted. His name was chiseled into the black granite stone in Washington after suffering a fatal heart attack. The Department of the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery determined the heart attack was the result of wounds sustained in combat during the Vietnam War.
Eileen (Hough) Boudreau, 55, of Holyoke, carried a wreath to the floor in front of the podium in honor of her brother. She said later the city’s commemoration left her speechless.
“I don’t know, I am so honored,” Boudreau said.
It might be hard for many people to grasp, but she said losing his legs failed to kill her brother’s spirit.
“My brother was great. He’d give you the shirt of his back. There wasn’t too much that kept him down. Just because he lost his legs didn’t keep him down. He owned his own house, he drove,” she said.
Clayton Hough’s name will be added to the state Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at Green Hill Park in Worcester, at 1 p.m. June 19, said Michael Franco, city veterans services officer.
The cleaning and repair of the Civil War monument and statue of Miss Liberty at Veterans Park at Maple and Dwight streets took four years and $11,000 in donations.
The rededication consisted of remarks by Jacqueline M. Sears, a historian, preservationist and city native; Cesar A. Lopez, a retired Marine and member of the School Committee who is the War Memorial’s sergeant-at-arms (official maintainer of the building’s internal order); and local students.
The memorial is 135 years old. Its patina needed to be scrubbed after which Lopez and others applied a layer of protective wax. The memorial’s four bas-relief panels also were coming unattached, Sears said.
The monument lists the names of 55 Holyokers who died in the war between the states, which ended in 1865. Sculptor Henry Jackson Ellicott created the monument dedicated on July 4, 1876.
Lopez said the work took time and effort, and in remarks from the podium, he thanked Manuel Colon for helping him.
Colon, 44, of Holyoke, an auto mechanic, isn’t a veteran and said he had a simple reason for climbing the memorial to clean it with Lopez.
“He’s my friend,” Colon said.
Closing his remarks, Lopez said to the filled the auditorium, “Just remember what Memorial Day is all about.”
Contrary to some criticism, Korean War veteran Kieth Dallmann, 79, said he believes people do remember veterans on days other than just Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
Dallmann, a Navy veteran, was among those at the War Memorial ceremony.
“They give recognition a lot of times. I have a baseball cap and I’ve got ‘Korea Forgotten War’ on it and a lot of times people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you,’ so they understand,” Dallmann said.
Dallmann also is a veteran of six hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific Ocean. The experience has never left him, he said.
“It scares the bejesus out of you,” Dallmann said.
Dallmann, who was city Veteran of the Year last year, said “Kieth” is the way he prefers to spell his name.
Barabani asked the audience to remember the men and women “standing lonely watches in distant lands.”
Among those Barabani identified in the audience were George E. Hogan, a Soldiers’ Home resident. Hogan landed on Guadalcanal on Aug. 7, 1942, a 17-year-old Marine who joined up on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
Hogan, wearing a red jacket, received a standing ovation.
James B.J. Hoar was the event’s master of ceremonies.