Aaron Hall
PHOTOS: Memorial Day Parade and Ceremony
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Aaron Hall, a U.S. Army captain and intelligence officer from 2004 to 2014, recalled feeling a “tremendous sense of pride” shortly after moving with his young family to New Canaan last fall.
A member primarily of the Army’s 10th Mountain Division and 5th Special Forces Group, Hall said the first things he noticed on visiting Town Hall for the first time was the 9/11 memorial out front of the New Canaan Fire Department across Main Street, and the bronze plaques located within the northern entrance to Town Hall itself, listing the names of all New Canaanites who had served during U.S. conflicts since the nation’s inception. The two memorials “made me realize as a veteran that this is the place that I wanted to raise my family, that I wanted my two kids to be able to grow up in, to take part in days like today, to be able to remember those who have given the ultimate sacrifice,” Hall told more than 300 people gathered in Lakeview Cemetery on a clear, sunny Monday morning following the town’s annual Memorial Day Parade.
“As much as Memorial Day is the unofficial start to summer, take a few moments to reflect and share with you a few heroic men, who in the words of James Garfield ‘loved their country that they too accepted death and as such made immortal their patriotism and their own virtue.’ ”
Hall was the guest speaker during the town’s annual ceremony to honor members of the U.S. Armed Forces who died while fighting for the nation, “so that we can continue to enjoy our inalienable rights,” he said. Town officials and residents joined members of the New Canaan Police Department, New Canaan Fire Department, New Canaan Emergency Medical Services, Girl Scouts, Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and other organizations for the solemn ceremony, overseen by VFW Post 653. It included comments from the first selectman, an invocation from local clergy, playing of the “Star Spangled Banner” by the New Canaan Town Band, singing of “God Bless America” by the Girl Scouts, placing of wreaths by the DAR’s Kathleen Tesluk and Parade Grand Marshal Lisa Melland, playing of “Taps” and gun salute.
Hall thanked many of those groups, and others such as the Boy Scouts and civic organizations that had helped place more than 1,100 flags by the gravestones of military members buried in Lakeview and other cemeteries in New Canaan, those who care fo the cemetery grounds and those who had sold and purchased silk red poppies—which “serve as an emblem for keeping the faith for all of those veterans who died,” he said—in order to make the flag project this past weekend, and a similar one to place wreaths on the gravestones in November, possible. “Most importantly and the reason we are here today, is to thank all of our valued military service members and first responders and their families, who went into harm’s way and gave the ultimate sacrifice so that each of us can continue to enjoy our inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” he said.