News

New Canaan Police Chief: Beware of Phony Solicitations for Veterans as Memorial Day Approaches

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On May 30, Memorial Day, we honor those veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for our great country. Memorial Day honors their service and sacrifice. Nearly 850 Veterans are buried in Lakeview Cemetery. 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. Recently, 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.

Around Town

New Canaan Marks Veterans Day in Ceremony at Town Hall

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Though the many ways that civilians thank U.S. military veterans are right and appropriate—parades, observances, moments of silence and simple thank-you’s, for example—the most complete ways to honor those who have served must deliver both recognition and lasting empowerment, one active serviceman said Wednesday. The United States currently counts about 50,000 homeless veterans—a group that is susceptible to suicide at a 50 percent higher rate than civilians, according to statistics cited by Lt. Todd Kniffen, who commands an officer candidate company of 100 young men and women in Newport, R.I., and whose mother lives here in New Canaan. “Indeed, more veterans have been lost to suicide than have been killed in combat operations since the global War on Terror began,” Kniffen told more than 100 people (many of them in uniform) gathered in the Town Meeting Room for the community’s annual Veterans Day Ceremony, moved inside from its usual location by the Wayside Cross at God’s Acre due to foul weather. “Raise awareness of these facts, volunteer your time and resources to causes that fight these trends. By doing so I promise that you gain, for the world and for the nation, a person whose core motivation is duty and service.

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.

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.