3 Vets Remembered

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by Allan Appel | Nov 12, 2007 4:57 pm

(2) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Arts

On the occasion of Veterans Day 2007, join us in communing with three very different New Havene vets, one young, one very old, and, yes, one who is dead.

The first vet was remembered by Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen at a city Veterans Day event.

Rhodeen had recently attended the funeral of his uncle, Al Stevens, a pilot in World War Two. “Uncle Al and others instilled a sense of obligation of service,” Rhodeen said. “One particular gentleman at the church stood and said that the only reason he was alive today is Al Stevens.”

Rhodeen recalled that his uncle, a 1940 graduate of Yale college, piloted planes, probably cargo planes, over India. “I see what I do in the military,” he added, “and what I do in government on the same continuum. Pride in your nation and in your city are expressed best through service.”

Jean Boorsch (pictured above) came to teach French at Yale in 1934. He taught for 40 years, including devising pioneering methods to teach French on the fast track to the soldiers and sailors bound for Europe who filled the campus during the war years. Now 101, he has a vivid memory of being a boy of 12 on that day in 1918 when the armistice that ended World War One took effect — this was the genesis of Armistice, now Veterans, Day.

“All of Paris spilled out into the streets,” he said, “and I remember the American soldiers with their big broad hats. I wanted to stay outside but my mother found me – how in the world she found me among all those millions of people on the street – I will never know.

“But she took me home and I watched the rest from the balcony. That was such an exhausting terrible war. France lost 1,000 men a day, 1.3 million in total. The blood letting was incredible.” Boorsch said that had he been already 12 years old when the Germans swept through Hautmont, a town on the Belgian border near where he grew up, he would have been detained and not allowed to go to Paris. He remembers being the height so that if stared straight ahead he could see German officers’ belt buckles and he also remembers running errands picking up packs of cigarettes for British soldiers in the see-saw front of the war that allegedly was going to end all wars.

Today he still lives in the house he built in North Haven in 1937, where he hoisted a glass of red wine at a family Veterans’ Day lunch, (full disclosure: he’s this reporter’s father-in-law), and said, “I’m very very happy to be at peace at last.”

And, finally we commune with Everett Lee Anderson, the first name listed on the Vietnam Memorial at Long Wharf. He died on February 10, 1965, in a battle for a place called the Qui Nhnon Hotel in Vietnam. His name — and 45 other New Haveners’ names — are electronically linked with the names on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington and on the Virtual Wall (click here).

We clicked on his name, and were able to read posted messages to Anderson left for him over the last few years. Several were from kids at Gridley High School in El Paso, Texas, who had picked his name at random as part of a project they were doing on the Vietnam War. That was in 2003.

Another posting in 2004 was from a student at Captain Nathan Hale middle school in Coventry, Connecticut. A middle school student named Tori wrote in part to Everett Lee Anderson, “. . .If you had come home you would have been turned away by everyone but your family and friends. Your family and friends miss you greatly. Now all the veterans and men who died are considered heroes. That means you are a hero.”

The final communication to Army Specialist 5 Everett Lee Anderson was deeply personal; “Always wonder who you are, how you are. Too young to remember you, but I’m proud of you.”

This message also was relatively recent, October 2, 2007, and the writer was his daughter, Patricia Peczerwoj. The Independent accepted the electronic invitation to be in touch with her. We asked what prompted her to write to her dad, what his connection was to New Haven, and anything else she might want to tell us. Today Everett Lee Anderson’s daughter lives in France, and, translated from the French, here’s what she said:

“I just write my father instinctively, from time to time. I search for news or information about him because I don’t know him. All I know about my father is what my mother has told me, and it’s very little.

“He was born in Wankegan, Illinois on May 3, 1932, and came to New Haven. He has a sister there, I think, but we’ve lost touch. My mother is French. She and my father met in France at the air base at Toul-Rosieres (editor: in the northwest near Moselle).

“My mother returned to France in June, 1964, when he was sent to Vietnam. He died on the tenth of February, 1965 during an attack on a place called the Qui Nhon Hotel. He had only four months left to finish his service. He left three children: Carole, five years old, Jacques four, and I was eighteen months. His special area of work, his SP5, was that he was a mechanic for helicopters.”

In addition to Anderson, the Vietnam Memorial wall lists 46 people with connections to Greater New Haven towns killed in Vietnam. In late June 2007, Private First Class Andre Craig, Jr. was killed in Iraq. According to the Hartford Courant (click here), he was the first New Havener and 39th with ties to Connecticut killed since 2001 in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Comments

posted by: Common Sense on November 12, 2007 8:57pm

It would be nice if more stories can be told about the many veterans from the New Haven area that served their country. Even the thousands who joined the military or were drafted and served their country with honor during the “Cold War” era. Many of our veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam have passed on. Others are in ill health and aging. Lets hear more of their stories while they are still around. They are part of our history.

posted by: Guido Calabresi on November 13, 2007 12:41pm

Dear Allen,

That’s perfectly wonderful. Give your Dad my love.

Affectionately,

Guido

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