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Master Sgt Walter Zielinski (pictured) served in Germany during WW II. “I was in Korea, too,” he said as he reminisced while waiting for Branford’s Veterans Day parade to begin Sunday.
“By the time of Vietnam I was too old,” he added with a smile.
At 93, he is now one of the few WW II veterans still alive and able to recount his experiences in Europe. He did so under sunny skies that later turned dark, windy and rainy as Branford’s annual Veterans Day parade wound its way through the center of town and past the reviewing stand on Main Street.
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Zielinkski, whose nickname is “Sarge,” has been in every one of Branford’s Veterans Day parades for as long as he can remember. He glanced over to the area where Stony Creek Fife and Drump Corps (pictured) was warming up.
“One year I couldn’t make it. I had just had my lung taken out. They put me in the hospital and they wouldn’t let me go out.” Then he had an idea. “I told them if they didn’t let me go to the parade, I will boycott it. So they let me go.”
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He loved his days of service, he said. “I remember feeling so proud to be in the service. I have all good memories of my friends. Most of them are gone now. Overall there are not many of us left.” Here is the Veteran’s of Foreign Wars contingent.
“I never smoked,” he said, recalling his 1944 days.
“But I drank like hell. I loved cognac, and I loved beer,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Back in 1945, he said, at the end of the war, there were about 16 million men and women in the service.
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Now there are about 1 million still alive. “I am one of them,” he said as fellow veterans arrived at the scene.
The person he thinks about the most, he said, is his wife, Sophie, who died two years ago. “I have been married for 67 years to a beautiful wife named Sophie. And she passed away. She was the strongest woman and the prettiest woman. You could think of Betty Gable, even Marilyn Monroe,” he said remembering the pin-up girls of his era. “But nothing compared to Sophie.”
DaRos Presides For Last Time
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This Memorial Day parade also marked the last time First Selectman Unk DaRos (pictured) would preside over the event held at the Town Green Cenotaph behind Town Hall. He retires from office in six days. Jamie Cosgrove will be sworn in as first selectman a week from today at 8 a.m. at the Blackstone Library.
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Selectman Cosgrove sat on the podium with DaRos and with Selectman Andy Campbell, who lost to Cosgrove in the race for first selectman. State Rep. Lonnie Reed and state Sen. Ed Meyer joined them. They are pictured marching in the parade afterward. Fire Chief Jack Ahern joined them.
DaRos told the assembled crowd: “This will be the last time I will have the honor of greeting you at this occasion. I want us to remember those who answered the call to duty. We are here to thank them for their willingness to put themselves in harm’s way. In the air, on land and at sea, blood was let. Many died. Many came home to family and friends. Many returned but were never quite the same.
“Every American, every veteran here has his or her reasons for entering the military. One thing they all had in common was raising their right hand in the pledge to protect and defend our nation from enemies both foreign and domestic. I remember taking the oath on Jan. 5, 1961, and for the next four years my time on earth belonged to the United States of America. That meant that your company came before all else. And you were charged with the honor of maintaining the greatest fighting force in the world. As I fade from public life I would like to recognize and thank the veterans’ parade committee and their recently departed chairman Frank Whelan. They have all faithfully organized the Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day parades. And that has raised awareness of the needs of veterans.”
“Gaze upon old glory and reflect on what it stands for. I would like you to ponder on how fortunate we all are. Thank you,” he concluded to a round of applause.
The Rev. Bill Keane opened his remarks shortly after 1 p.m. by asking those present to take to heart the words of Father Dennis Edward O’Brien.
“It is the soldier not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the solider not the poet who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the solider not the campus organizer who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the solider who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag and whose coffin is draped by the flag who allows the protestor to burn the flag. So now we pray. “
After taps was played, all the assembled groups took their position in a march that took them up South Main Street and through a circuitous route that eventually led the parade to Main Street where they passed by the reviewing stand.
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The Stony Creek Fife & Drum Corps led the way. It played patriotic tunes for the event.
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So did the younger version of the fife & drum corps, the one based at St. Mary’s School.
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The Second Company Governor’s Foot Guard, now based in Branford, was all decked out and at the ready to play. That’s RTM member Richard Greenalch, Jr., top right.
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There were kids everywhere. Here’s a group just getting started.
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And here’s a Brownie all decked out to march in the parade.
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And here’s a group of kids taking it all in.
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Here’s a snapshot of Dennis Flanagan, the clerk of the RTM along with Frank J. Kinney III, both members of the Veterans Parade Committee.
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The music was solid. Here is the Branford High School Band.
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The town band was strong.
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Here’s one deeply committed player.
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The fire department was well represented — - and in step.
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There were several times during the day that the men and women in service saluted the flag.
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At one point we caught up with Sgt. Zielinski, seated in the front seat of a jeep and flanked by the men in the military.
He said it is great to be alive.
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Seventy years ago a highly decorated Marine Corps general, disturbed by his participation in various military interventions, declared that WAR IS A RACKET.Smedley Butler on Interventionism.Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.
I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.
I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.
http://www.twf.org/News/Y2001/0911-Racket.html