A Letter Left Behind

The tradition of the Stony Creek Memorial Day Parade is learned in childhood, as one generation passes the details of the event onto the next.

Each year new children learn how to place flowers (and sometimes a flag) on the graves of the veterans buried in the cemetery on the hill.

There is no program for this parade. Everyone in the village knows it by heart. It does not change.
 
As if by ancient cue the villagers, hundreds of families in all, gather at 7: 45 a.m. at the flagpole in the center of Stony Creek.

Veterans, town officials, the Stony Creek Fife and Drum Corps, and a group of Boy Scouts ready themselves for the first action of the day.

The fife and drum corps stands at attention. Then the leader gives the downbeat at precisely 8 a.m. At that moment the American flag is lowered to half-staff in memory of those who gave their lives for their nation.

On Cue the Village Assembles

Former First Selectman Unk DaRos is the Master of Ceremonies for this day. Also in attendance are former Republican First Selectman John Opie and Representative Town Meeting (RTM) Moderator Dennis Flanagan. Republican RTM Majority Leader Ray Ingraham is on hand as well.

On this Memorial Day, as on every other one, Stony Creek families, and returning friends and family, kids and dogs line the sidewalks as the event begins. Joining the Creekers this day is Ted Kennedy, Jr. (pictured) who is running on the Democratic ticket for state senator this year, a post now held by Ed Meyer. Sen. Meyer, who is retiring, takes his place near the flagpole. 

Soon a group of veterans, including Flanagan, shoot their rifles three times in the morning air. Then the villagers fall behind the fife and drum corps.

The veterans of various wars lead the half-mile walk to the cemetery.

The fife and drum corps plays patriotic music as they walk through the village streets and up the hill and into the cemetery. The villagers move on foot and by stroller, scooter, skateboard, bike and wheelchair. Dogs are everywhere. Then as everyone entered the cemetery, silence falls.

DaRos takes his place at the ceremony.

Soon comes the reading of the names of the 107 veterans buried in this cemetery, including those in the Civil War, a number that grew from 100 last year.David M. Baker, the past Democratic Majority Leader of the RTM, walked in the parade last year, telling this reporter some of his war stories. This year he is buried in the cemetery.

While the ritual remains the same, what is different each year is what the honorary parade marshal Lt. Col. Peter Brainerd has to say in his annual message. One year he spoke about Vietnam. This year he begins by reminding the villagers of the soon-to-be held 70th anniversary of the landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944.

This year Brainerd also wants to talk about a young soldier who left a letter behind, a soldier whose story was not known until he described it.

But first he explains why Memorial Day is significant.

​“This is why Memorial Day is so important; we don’t just honor those who participated in those hellacious fire fights, we honor the more than 1 million men and women who lost their lives defending America from the American Revolution to the global war on terrorism.”

Then he reads sections of a letter left behind by West Coast Marine Sgt. William Stacey who was on his fourth deployment to Afghanistan when he was killed by a roadside bomb while walking on patrol on Jan. 23, 2012. 

Many who go to war leave a letter behind, Brainerd says. Stacey, who grew up in Redding, California, was only 23 years old when he was killed.

Stacey writes that his death ​“did not change the world. It may be tough for you to justify its meaning at all. But there is a greater meaning to it.

Perhaps I did not change the world but there will be a child who will live because men left the security they enjoyed in their home country to come here and this child will learn in the new schools that they have built.

“He will walk his streets not worried whether or not his leader’s henchmen will come and kidnap him. He will grow into a fine man who will pursue every opportunity his heart will desire. He will have the gift of freedom, which I have enjoyed for so long. If my life buys the safety of a child who will one day change the world then I will know it was all worth it.”

Brainerd then paid homage to the young man. ​“Like all who died in the prime of their lives Stacey is forever young, remembered this Memorial Day and many to come for bestowing on us the gift of freedom. Thank you.”

Next DaRos called upon Sammy Roberts to come up front to recite the Gettysburg Address. Here he is.

He was followed by a chorus of five girls who sang patriotic songs.

When the singing stopped and the applause died down, DaRos asked for the kids with flowers ​“to come forward. The veterans will help you to put flowers on the graves,” he said. ​“C’mon kids,” he said. And up they came.

There was a final invocation followed by an extraordinary rendition of ​“Amazing Grace” by Pastor Charles Woody of St. Stephen’s AME Zion Church in Branford. 

Meanwhile, families gathered at the grave sites as their children prepared to leave their flowers. 

From start to finish, this was a tribute, in music and in words, a tribute that continued at the Town Green an hour later. There First Selectman Jamie Cosgrove spoke quietly of the day and so did Hamlet Hernandez, the schools superintendent, a heavily decorated Marine.

Master Staff Sgt. Walter Zielinski, ( in blue cap) who served in Germany during World War II, is now one of the few Branford World War II veterans still alive and able to recount his experiences in Europe. We caught up with him on Main Street in the town parade, still smiling.
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