Gordon Joseloff First Selectman

t was a honor to march in today’s Memorial Day parade as first selectman and to make some remarks afterward on Veterans Green. For the record, here’s what I had to say:

Honored guests,

What a wonderful Memorial Day parade. Thank you to Bill Vornkahl for his efforts on this parade, Veterans Day, and just about every event in Westport that involves marching.

I have walked this parade every year for the past 15 years, wearing either a firefighter’s uniform as a member of the Westport Volunteer Fire Department or as a member of the Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service. I am delighted to march this year as still a member of both units but also this time as your first selectman.

I first marched in a Westport Memorial Day parade about 50 years ago as a Cub Scout or a Little League member. I am not sure now which. While the details of those years have started to fade, I still remember well though the small town feeling, the spirit of patriotism,and the outpouring then to our veterans, especially those who fought in Korea, World War II and World War I.

But those who have studied Memorial Day and its history know that it began as Decoration Day to honor Union soldiers who died during the American Civil War.

Many of the states of the U.S. South refused to celebrate Decoration Day due to the lingering hostility towards the Union Army. Many Southern states did not recognize Memorial Day until after World War I.

Westport’s observance of Decoration Day began in the late 1870s with Civil War veterans visiting cemeteries to decorate the graves of war dead.

It became more formal in 1880. At 3 o’clock on a stormy Sunday afternoon, a dozen old soldiers met at the home of Captain Henry Burr. The small group marched, through the rain, to each cemetery in town, laying flowers on the graves of veterans.

According to John S. Jones, editor of the Westporter-Herald who wrote about the event many years later, the veterans at those first ceremonies were accompanied by only two civilians.

David Press, a member of our Planning and Zoning Commission, has studied the history of Westport’s Memorial Day as part of book he is working on. Let me read some excerpts:

“Westport’s Civil War veterans were an odd mix of merchants and lawyers, farmers and carpenters, painters and oystermen. More than 200 of the town’s men served the Union Army in Chancellorsville, Cold Harbor and Cedar Mountain, Va.; Port Hudson, La., and in Gettysburg, Pa.”

It was not until 1885 that a Decoration Day parade became an annual occurrence.

“Capt. James E. Hubbell, the proprietor of Hubbell & Bradley, a Saugatuck grocery and hardware store, served as the parade’s first grand marshal. Marchers followed a route that stopped at each of the town’s four downtown cemeteries where tombstones were decorated.

“In its May 30, 1885 edition, the town’s newspaper, Westporter, showcased a front page roster of 25 Civil War veterans buried in town. It also carried an even longer list of town stores in town that had, for the first time, closed shop for the day to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice. A Memorial Day tradition had begun.”

So today we honor those who are serving on active duty in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and around the world. We also honor those who have served before. Some people think that Westport is far off from the fighting. But it’s not so.

Connecticut’s first Iraq war casualty was a relative of one of our EMS crew chiefs. Two years ago our firefighters proudly carried in this parade a flag that had been flown with an American unit in Iraq.

Not long ago, residents of a Westport neighborhood decorated their street with red, white and blue balloons to welcome home a neighbor who had served in Iraq.

Our firefighters, Girl Scouts, and others have collected supplies and goodies to send to our soldiers on active duty.

Some months ago, a returning soldier told his story to a Brown Bag lunch. And I don’t have to remind you of the Westport residents and those with Westport connections who lost their lives on 9/11.

For Westport and America, war is no longer a far off event.

So on this day, let us not forget that halfway around the world, Americans will die today defending our nation. Our debt to them can never be repaid.

But we can honor them. We can honor them with our thoughts and with our prayers. We can honor them with flowers and with ribbons. And we can honor them by shaking the hand of a veteran, looking them in the eye, and saying “thank you.”

May God Bless Westport and May God Bless America.