Newtown Honors Sacrifice On Veterans’ Day

By Andrew Gorosko

On a brisk, bright Sunday, November 11, punctuated by gusty winds and framed by the russet hues of autumn, members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 308 and American Legion Post 202 stood at attention at solemn Veterans’ Day ceremonies, honoring the war dead of the past.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal told the approximately 70 people who had assembled on a hillside outside the compact post building at the intersection of South Main Street and Mile Hill Road, that the day marked 83 years since the end of World War I, which formerly was known as Armistice Day.

Since the First World War, the United States has faced the challenges of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, among others, he noted. Mr Rosenthal is a Navy veteran.

“Today, we’re involved in a new situation…Over 5,000 Americans died in this new terrorist war. This is something we never faced before,” Mr Rosenthal said of the events of September 11, which saw terrorist airplane attacks at the World Trade Center in Manhattan and at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., plus the downing of a commercial airliner in rural western Pennsylvania.

“This new terrorist war can attack us at any place, at any time,” the first selectman stressed.

 Mr Rosenthal urged vigilance in the face of dangers posed by terrorist acts.

The particular difficulty that the United States faces in fighting terrorism is not allowing the increased investigatory powers, which the federal government now holds, to erode the personal freedoms that Americans have fought wars to protect, the first selectman said.

Some answers to the dire questions posed by terrorism are unclear, he said.

“On this Veterans’ Day, I stand here to salute all the veterans that have served us so well,” the first selectman said, in urging those present to treat others as they themselves would like to be treated.

Following other talks on military remembrance and the challenges of the future, an honor guard fired several rounds saluting the war dead. Post members placed memorial wreaths at a monument honoring the war dead.

A rifleman unit’s four-shot salute preceded three rattling, concussive discharges from a field artillery piece.

Dense white clouds of expended gunpowder blew out and away from the big gun, scenting the site with the aroma of war.