Full steam ahead on veterans mission
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — The renaissance of Putnam’s mission to honor veterans is in high gear. April is crunch time with a goal of getting serious work done before Memorial Day.
The Court of Honor in Veterans Park has been expanded, ready for more veterans’ pavers to be installed shortly by the Masonry students from Harvard H. Ellis Tech. Robert Challinor, leader of the Veterans Park efforts and chairman of the town’s Veterans Advisory Committee (VAC), said about 140 additional veterans’ pavers will be installed around the flagpole.
Those pavers have arrived and will be sealed by volunteers before the students install them.
Six of the panels of the white vinyl fence at the back of the park were removed to allow for “some groundwork and some work with the stone wall there,” according to Challinor.
The bronze plaques with the names of local veterans from Putnam on the two large World War II monuments are due shortly. About 1,500 names will grace the plaques.
In addition, paver sales went so well there is extra money so the VAC plans to put veterans bricks on the graves of veterans buried in Putnam cemeteries. Challinor said the bricks are 4x8 and are gray, like the pavers in the park. They worked with the vendor to “make the logos work for us.”
He added the whole VAC group came up with this idea.
He said the Albert Breault VFW Post 1523 traditionally puts flags on veterans’ graves and members saw that some veterans’ markers were buried or worse — not honored. “So we thought to acknowledge and honor them with bricks,” he said. Veterans from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War and more are buried in Putnam cemeteries.
Challinor said a total of 1,196 are needed. The group will start, this year, with 596 which will cover the Aspinwall, Grove Street, Heights, Munyan and River Road cemeteries. The balance of the bricks will go into St. Mary’s next year.
April is “crunch time,” he said. The goal is to have this done by Memorial Day. “There’s so much to do, we’re getting started in the park, etc. now.”
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Bollards will go back in when the expanded Court of Honor is finished.
The left side of the Court of Honor, just about ready for veteran pavers.
Fence panels were removed to allow some groundwork.