WESTFORD CENTER — Dozens of residents gathered at the Old Center Fire Station on Sunday to honor local veterans and service members during the town’s annual Memorial Day ceremony, hosted by the Westford Veterans Services Department.
The ceremony began with the Westford Police and Fire Department Honor Guards displaying the flags, before members of the Veterans Services Department and Westford Veterans of Foreign Wars began an honor roll, reading the names of all the 1,184 service members connected to Westford, who died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The included men and women in the military who lost their lives in the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War and War in Afghanistan, as well as during peacetime.
Following the honor roll, veterans services officer Colin Bode began the ceremony, which started off with the Westford Girl Scouts leading the Pledge of Allegiance, before U.S. Navy submarine veteran and VFW post commander Doug Wood led the chaplain’s prayer.
Bode then addressed the audience to which he explained that to veterans, Memorial Day isn’t just once a year, it’s all year.
“For veterans and families, who know the feeling of loss, Memorial Day is not about the statistics of war, or the headlines you see on the news – even though more than one million Americans have been killed in service to this country throughout our history,” Bode said. “It’s about the one million empty seats at our dinner tables. It’s about hundreds of thousands of children who grew up without their parents. It’s about our comrades in arms who still carry the weight of that loss, long after the uniforms come off and the boots are hung up. For veterans remembrance is not something we do once a year – we carry it with us every day.”
Bode then invited Westford resident Patty Doran to the podium to read Gov. Maura Healey’s Memorial Day proclamation, before the Westford Boy Scouts performed a flag-folding ceremony.
Select Board Clerk Noёlle Donovan was then invited to the podium as the first guest speaker, where she delivered a message of unity to the crowd.
“Those we honor today did not sacrifice for red states or blue states, for one party or another, or for people who agreed with them – they sacrificed for all of us,” Donovan said. “So the best way I feel we can honor their memory is by living in a way worthy of their sacrifice. By treating one another with decency, by showing compassion, by loving our neighbors.”
Newly-elected Select Board member Elizabeth Sawyer was also invited to speak at the podium, as was state representative Jim Arciero.
Sawyer shared a story she heard from her cousin about their relative, Charles Herbert Andrews, who was the captain of the USS Gurnard, a U.S. navy submarine during World War II involved in the Pacific Theater. She said her cousin told her that Andrews had a reputation for his camaraderie and always looked after his crew.
“Many of the stories suggest that in addition to the reason a conflict was initiated, or the ideals of the nation that drive the reasons for it, it’s the people beside our military who are driving people forward, even under the most extreme circumstances,” Sawyer said. “And when I think about ways that we can memorialize our veterans and those who sacrificed ultimately beyond today, it is caring for not just what they achieved, but how they did it. And it was alongside their fellow soldiers and sailors – and the differences between them did not matter. Building bonds across people is what we can do going forward.”
Arciero then took the podium and spoke about the importance of remembering those who lost their lives serving the country and the impact of those losses on military families, emphasizing why it is important to commemorate them on Memorial Day each year.
“This weekend, veterans from the Greatest Generation to the 9/11 Generation pause to remember those lost in war,” Arciero said. “Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are placing wreaths across American flags on the graves of American heroes, in cemeteries here in Westford and across our country. Gold Star families look to old pictures of vacations, first communions, graduations, of their loved ones that left this world far too young. But for those families who lost a loved one, this sad chapter in their lives will remain long after the guns of battle have fallen silent.”
Sawyer and Arciero then thanked Bode and Veterans Services Administrative Assistant Heather Monahan, before the ceremony concluded with taps being played by members of the Westford Academy Marching band and “Amazing Grace” played by Westford Pipes and Drums. Wood ended the ceremony by reading his final benediction.
Part of the Memorial Day ceremony included wreath laying at several war memorials and grave sites across town. It would also typically include the town’s annual Memorial Day parade, but the latter was canceled this year due to bad weather.
