nothin City Remembers WWI’s Fallen, 100 Years Later | New Haven Independent

City Remembers WWI’s Fallen, 100 Years Later

Allison Park Photo

John F. McDermott, John McGowan, Thomas H. McGrath, Michael J. McNerney, Joseph P. McNulty…

They went from New Haven a century to fight the war to end all wars.” They didn’t make it back.

But a century later, they weren’t forgotten.

The 261 New Haveners who lost their lives in World I had their names read aloud on the Green Sunday as part of a centennial commemoration and rededication of a monument that stands in their honor.

A total of 116,516 U.S. soldiers died in World War I. Another 200,000 soldiers were wounded. The casualty rate was far greater than in World War Two, and all within only 17 months of war spanning 1917 to the Nov. 11, 1918, armistice.


Over 550 New Haven residents, noted historians, and city officials gathered for the commemoration Sunday. The program featured special guests speakers, selections from the Yale Concert Band, and a reading of the New Haven World War I honor roll for people who died during the war.

It was the greatest and bloodiest [war] in all of world history,” said featured speaker Paul Kennedy of Yale. This [commemoration] is a reminder that war is costly, war is deadly, war is awful.”

Paul Kennedy addresses the gathering.

… William M. MacArthur, John C. Martino, Michael Mayo, William N. Meickle, Jr, Frank Mendillo …

The only monument ever allowed to be constructed on the Green is the one at the flagpole listing the names of the New Haveners who died in battles called Meuse-Argonne, Somme, and Chateau-Thierry.

Standing by that monument, Kennedy said that we recognize the fallen soldiers’ sacrifice not with bombast or nationalist blunder, but soberly, thoughtfully, with a deep sense of history, a belief in our common humanity, and a desire for a better and more peaceful world.”

Thomas C. Duffy and the Yale Concert Band performing works including “God Bless America,” “American the Beautiful,” and “Yankee Division March.”

… John Julian Merwin, Thomas J. Merwin, Alexander Midas, Alfonso Milone, Robert E. Mitchell …

Kennedy closed his speech with a reference to what the future may hold for our leaders and the world. This is a time when heavy, heavy responsibilities lie upon our leaders,” he noted, and we pray for them to show intelligence, care, and integrity.”

Allan Appel Photo

Event organizer William MacMullen.

… Helen A. Moakley, Bernard T. Molampy, Thomas J. Mooney, George R. Morgan, Thomas J. Moriarty …

William MacMullen, the city’s architectural capital projects coordinator, spent two years planning Sunday’s centennial commemoration.

We’ll do this again in 100 years,” he said, and I hope to see you all there.”

Click on the Facebook Live video to hear a recent interview with William MacMullen on WNHH FM’s Dateline New Haven” about the centennial and about why we should remember and care about the war today.

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