New Haven’s stark Vietnam Memorial down by Long Wharf may in Veterans Days to come be joined in the same harborside setting by an additional memorial to the city’s World War Two dead.
In addition to the V, the area contains two other memorial sculptures, one honoring Purple Heart recipients and the other for Korean War veterans, but nothing for World War Two. Furthermore the whole expanse of grass, if it becomes part of a malled off, pedestrian-only area as a result of the future I‑95 reconstruction, may also be known as Veterans Memorial Park.
Nothing’s definite, but these were some of the wishes, expressed by veterans’ officials, along with moving remembrances and wreath-layings for Veterans Day 2007, both at the flagpole on the Green and at Long Wharf.
After a service of remembrance in the aldermanic chambers, the mayor and Drill Sergeant Alex Rhodeen, who serves with National Guard Company 417 and is also known as the 15th Ward alderman, laid one of five wreaths at the World War One-era memorial flagpole on the Green.
Other alders present were Al Paolillo and Tom Lehtonen, who is an Air Force veteran.
Inside, Bob Fodero laid a rose representing all the blood spilled, at the base of the memorial tablet that was removed from the Veterans Memorial Coliseum before the structure was demolished and put up in City Hall. Today, this area of City Hall is known as Veterans Memorial Hall, although few people seem to know it.
Before the rose-laying, inside, during the memorial service, Fodero led a moving prayer for peace to replace war and for love to prevail against hate in our lives and throughout the universe. His remarks, like those of the other officials, struck a decidedly unbellicose tone. They were as full of a consciousness of the dying out of the World War Two generation as they were of today’s far-flung wars.
Outside, on the sun-splashed Green, Fodero told a reporter that in principle the mayor had accepted a recommendation for a World War Two memorial.
“It would be paid for through privately raised funds,” Fodero said. He added that he had spoken to City Plan’ Director Karen Gilvarg about turning the current area of the “V” into a memorial park for veterans. The mayor confirmed that all that was still in process, and in particular that the Department of Parks, Recreation and Trees had not made that decision yet. “As to the determinations for the reconstruction of I‑95,” the mayor added, “they are still in process with the state Department of Transportation.” One of the options foresees Long Wharf Drive being turned into a pedestrian-only area.
Alderman Rhodeen said that he favors a World War Two memorial and the expansion of the Long Wharf monument area into a Veterans Memorial Park.
Another memorial monument, long in the works, is one for the Civil War’s colored regiments from Connecticut. (Click here to read about that.) But it doesn’t appear it would be placed at Long Wharf. The mayor indicated it was his understanding that when ready that memorial will be erected in Criscuolo Park, formerly the site of Fort Terry, a Civil War encampment where the black troops drilled. “The organizers,” said the mayor, “want it specifically there.”
All that’s a number of years in the future. However, for Veterans Day 2007, click here for three brief portraits of what the day means to three very different New Haveners, one young, one very old, and, yes, one who is dead.
