News

Letter: A Thank You from VFW Post 653 Commander Peter C. Langenus

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Thanks to all who made Memorial Day in New Canaan such a memorable event. Thanks to all who marched; thanks to all who cheered. Thanks again to our grand marshall Ruth Gutt for her service to the nation as an Air Force nurse. Thanks to Boyd Harden, our speaker, who told the story of sacrifice in the most personal of terms and how small towns like New Canaan paid for victory with the lives of our young. And special thanks to all citizens of New Canaan who purchased a poppy this year.

Around Town

PHOTOS, VIDEO: New Canaan Memorial Day Parade 2015

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New Canaan’s Boyd Harden gained his greatest appreciation for what Memorial Day means in 1995, about one year after flying dozens of international relief missions to Somalia as a U.S. Marine Corps aviator and officer. As a member of the “Thundering Third”—the third battalion, fourth Marines—the 1983 NCHS graduate went to the island of Iwo Jima, a small volcanic island that had seen some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II in February and March 1945. Addressing hundreds of New Canaanites gathered at Lakeview Cemetery for a solemn ceremony following the annual Memorial Day Parade on Main Street, Harden asked the crowd to envision what those Marines had faced in what would be a pivotal battle of WWII. Imagine, Harden said, that loaded with 120 pounds of combat gear, it was the job of those gathered to get from Lakeview Cemetery to the water towers at Waveny, with 22,000 Japanese soldiers lying in wait in every home along the way. “They [the Japanese] have been practicing for months and their sole intention is to kill all of us,” Harden said.

Around Town

Memorial Day Parade Starts 9:30 a.m. Monday; Guest Speaker, Line of March Set

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The Memorial Day Parade will start at 9:30 a.m. Monday, following Main Street from St. Mark’s Episocpal Church and concluding with a ceremony at Lakeview Cemetery whose guest speaker is a 1983 New Canaan High School graduate and deeply involved resident of the town who is a decorated veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. Boyd Harden, after earning degrees including an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, went on to serve as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, officials say. He attended naval aviation flight school and was designated as a U.S. Marine Corps aviator in April 1992. “He is a rotary wing and a fixed wing pilot,” according to a press release issued by the Office of the First Selectman.

News

Police Chief: Supporting True Veterans Organizations as Memorial Day Approaches

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[Leon M. Krolikowski is Chief of Police in the town of New Canaan.]

Each and every day the men and women of the New Canaan Police Department protect and serve our Town. On May 25, Memorial Day, we honor those who pledged to protect and serve our great country and in the process made the ultimate sacrifice. As Memorial Day approaches, it’s a good time to remind the good and patriotic citizens of New Canaan to be aware of phony organizations who “solicit” on behalf of Veterans. Each year we receive complaints about scams that victimize New Canaan residents and some of these scams are initiated by those purporting to be “Veterans.”

Last year, prior to the 4th of July, Peter Langenus, the Commander of New Canaan’s Veterans of Foreign War Post 653 received a telephone call from a shopper who had been approached for a money donation in front of the Food Emporium. The shopper thought that the solicitor’s military uniform seemed to be a mismatch of different uniforms and of different branches of the service.