Wartime Veterans

Award Ceremony Planned

The Connecticut Department of Veterans’ Affairs will host a special Connecticut Veterans Wartime Service Medal awards ceremony in Newtown on Wednesday, June 25.

The public is invited to attend the ceremony, which will take place at Newtown High School. It will begin promptly at 9 am.

The ceremony is being done in cooperation with the state DVA and State Representative Julia Wasserman and State Representative DebraLee Hovey.

The state first struck and issued a veterans medal for those who served during the Civil War. Medals were also issued to Connecticut citizens who returned from service in the Spanish-American War and World War I. After World War I, the tradition lapsed until it was restored in 2005.

The new medal is patterned closely after the medals issued after World War I, and contains the official seals of each branch of the armed services along with the words “For Service.” To qualify for the medals, veterans must live in Connecticut now or at the time of their military service.

About 35 ceremonies have been held in towns and cities across the state in the past three years, including one just this week in Brookfield, and more than 20,000 service medals have been presented to men and women who served their country.

For additional information contact the Department of Veterans’ Affairs at 860-529-2571 or the office of Rep Hovey, 860-240-1423.