Fallen Soldiers of All Wars Remembered at Memorial Day Observances May 30th

By John McNamara

NEW BRITAIN – Fallen soldiers of all wars were remembered on Friday, May 30th, with rifle salutes, the playing of taps and prayers at Memorial Day observances.

Officials, honor guards, clergy and veterans visited 11 memorials and monuments for service men and women throughout the morning beginning at the General John Patterson Memorial (Revolutionary War) and concluding at the Captain Brian S. Letendre Memorial Park, named for a young father and U.S. Marine killed in Iraq in 2006. Presiding at each site were Veterans Commission Chair John Buckley and other commissioners.

New Britain has dedicated 25 veterans’ memorials at parks and sites throughout the city. Downtown’s Central Park is the most prominent with memorials to the Civil War, the Korean Conflict, World War II, the Vietnam War and the War on Terrorism.

While most communities mark Memorial Day with parades and ceremonies on the federal holiday established in 1971 on the last Monday of May, New Britain’s Veterans Commission follows tradition observing the holiday on May 30th, the date in 1868 when “Decoration Day” was held to honor the Union soldiers in the Civil War.

Memorial Day concluded with the traditional parade of bands, fife & drum corps, youth sports organizations and school groups on the mile and a half route from Broad Street to Main Street.

John McNamara is a Ward 4 Alderman and Common Council Majority Leader.