Our Veterans’ Sense Of Service

By Kendra Bobowick

Veterans.

Does the word conjure the tan and green swirls of camouflage, rifles, or news images of the country’s ongoing war overseas?

Maybe a grandfather’s face comes to mind instead, or a husband, son or daughter. Generations of residents since the Revolutionary and Civil Wars can instantly make associations to veterans.

Resident Mike Hurley, who served with the United States Marine Corps on active duty from 1960 until 1963, was named after a relative who served in the Civil War. He thinks of this relative and notes his children’s current service, saying, “We have some veterans in the family.”

Mike Hurley’s daughters and sons-in-law include Micaela and Jason McMurrough, and Cara and Ben Wallen. Micaela is a retired Army captain and her husband is an Army veteran. Cara is an Army nurse and her husband Major Ben Wallen is a West Point graduate and instructor and an Iraq veteran.

Newtown Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 308 Commander Ernest “Junie” Ingram served with the Navy from 1960 until 1964.

Legislative Council Chairman and reservist Will Rodgers was mobilized and deployed to Iraq from August 2006 until March 2007. He had first joined the Marine Corps in 1979.

Having recently joined the Newtown Police Department, Richard Monckton also recently returned from Afghanistan, where he served with his brother Thomas from January 2005 to May 2007.

Despite different backgrounds, a sense of service to both the country and community brings the men together.

“The service inspires a desire to serve in general,” Mr Hurley said. Background and the military itself both play a part in that desire.

Military life also prompts the notion of camaraderie.

“It’s a buddy system,” Mr Hurley explained. “You have to look out for others’ welfare. By God they’ll teach you, you can’t do it by yourself. You’re formed into a brotherhood. You look out for each other.”

Speaking from his own experience, Mr Hurley said, “You’re a Marine for life. [The military] creates an awareness, a need to help.” He takes his service seriously, and is currently a member of Newtown’s Persian Gulf Memorial Committee, which is organizing a plaque to recognize Desert Storm veterans that will join the plaques already honoring Newtown veterans of past wars at the Soldiers & Sailors Monument.

“I feel there is an obligation to help in any way I can and to use my talents as best as I can,” he said.

A sense of responsibility and service to the community started early for local servicemen.

“It’s the way I was raised,” Mr Rodgers said. Crediting his New England upbringing, he said the desire to serve is instilled, and it led him to the military. On the flip side is his civilian life where he serves on the Legislative Council.

Similarly, Mr Monckton said, “It’s a sense of being involved, it’s our upbringing and sense of pride when helping people. It’s a good feeling to help others.”

Mr Ingram agreed.

“The sense of wanting to help stays. That’s what the VFW is about — helping veterans, and helping families,” he said. In fact, said Mr Monckton, whose father was a past commander of the Newtown Post, “being eligible to join the VFW was a big deal for me and for my brother. We sort of grew up there.”

Looking ahead to the coming Veterans’ Day, Mr Monckton said, “It’s nice to be able to recognize the difference of how the community perceives veterans now to the Vietnam-era.” Unlike those returning from Vietnam — a war that caused protest in the United States — today’s troops returning from the Middle East are welcomed, supported, he said.

“It’s heart wrenching the way they were treated, but great how things gave changed,” said Mr Monckton.

Mr Rodgers is also anticipating Veterans’ Day, although he’ll be out of town on reserve duty.

“I wish veterans from Newtown well,” he said. “I am sorry I’ll miss the ceremony [at the VFW on Sunday] and I thank every veteran for their service. It’s an obligation to be admired.”

Some circumstances have shifted, however, observed Mr Rodgers.

“Starting with my generation becoming adults, suddenly public service became a pejorative term — there was something somehow wrong with people volunteering,” he said. “We need to get away from that and get back to volunteers.”

Mr Hurley also sees changes. Noting televisions, e-mails, and cellphones, he said: “Today it’s impersonal. Helping a fellow man is often something lacking in this day and age. If you don’t have time to help, that’s sad.”

On the surface, veterans are the men and women readjusting to everyday life. They have returned home to live with family, reentered the workforce or settled back into their lives. Others have been less fortunate. In offering a final impression for residents who will remember on Sunday the country’s veterans and the sacrifices they make, his thoughts turned to the Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital in West Haven.

“I get all choked up,” he said, recalling the scene he frequently encounters when visiting the hospital. “You come to the door and you see the signs of the price of freedom. You see old, young, the blind and injured. Within those doors you see amputees, the sick. It’s heart wrenching.”

Since the early 1900s, Americans have waited until the second to last month of the year to celebrate those who have served in this country’s military. Major hostilities of World War I formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918 when the Germans signed the Armistice.

 This Sunday at 11 am the VFW Post 308, 18 Tinkerfield Road, will host a ceremony recognizing veterans’ service. For more information, 426-9316.