Mary Ellen Callahan, a Gold Star family member with Massachusetts Fallen Heroes, speaks with Revere High School students about her son, Marine Sgt. William J. Callahan, who died while serving in Iraq in 2007.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
REVERE — Mary Ellen Callahan vividly remembers the morning she found out her 28-year-old son was killed in battle.
She recalled the story for Revere High School students this week to remind them why Memorial Day is important.
Callahan, of Hanson, is a Gold Star family member with Massachusetts Fallen Heroes (MSH), an organization dedicated to honoring soldiers killed in the line of duty.
She spoke to students on Tuesday about her son, U.S. Marine Corps. Sgt. William J. Callahan, who was killed in 2007 in Iraq when a homemade bomb exploded.
William Callahan was deployed twice to Iraq and worked as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technician. He received the 2006 EOD of the Year award.
“I’m very proud of him,” Callahan said. “It’s very emotional. It sits in me like a knife in my heart. My heart is broken forever. There’s days when it’s a little more challenging to say the words that he’s been killed but it means bringing in awareness for another family for their fallen to be remembered.”
Her son’s first deployment to Iraq was in 2005, which was a bad year for the bomb squad, she said. He came home in 2006 and was deployed again. That same year, he learned that his wife was pregnant with their first child. He was sent back to Iraq in February.
Two months later, Callahan said her son received a call from a friend who asked him to disarm a bomb. He went out with another friend, Peter Woodall, to disarm the device. They successfully disarmed it, but they didn’t realize that there was a second one planted underground. As soon as her son cleared the first one, it detonated the second one, which killed him and Woodall instantly.
His son was just born two weeks earlier and never met his father.
Callahan said she had a phone call with her son planned for that night. When the call never came, she figured he was too busy and fell asleep at 3:30 a.m.
About two hours later, she woke up to her dog crying and noticed a small, white car outside her home. As she was doing outreach work at the time, she didn’t think anything of it and returned to bed. Minutes later, two marines knocked on her door. She said her first thought was that her son had just won an award and was the best in his field.
“I never thought anything would happen to him,” Callahan said.
She then had to tell her daughter, 19 at the time, that her brother had died.
Callahan and MSH hope to educate students about Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day. She said Memorial Day is not just about barbeques and department store sales, but it’s about bringing awareness to fallen heroes.
“As family members, we want people to remember them,” Callahan said.
Jonathan Mitchell, deputy principal of Revere High School, said it was important for Callahan to talk to the students because everyone needs a reminder about what Memorial Day is about. He said most people should take time to reflect on how someone sacrificed everything they have to preserve the nation’s freedom.
“Freedom isn’t free,” Mitchell said. “It’s a cliche but it’s true.”
Revere will also celebrate Memorial Day on Monday at 11 a.m. on the American Legion building lawn next to City Hall. Names of the city’s war dead from the Revolutionary War to modern times will be read aloud.
Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) and other elected officials are scheduled to speak and ceremonial wreaths will be laid.
Peabody’s services begin today at 9 a.m. when veterans’ burial grounds will be flagged. A memorial Mass is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday in St. Adelaide’s Church with events following at the Kiley School Oak Grove, Lexington Monument and the Civil War monument.
On Saturday at 9 a.m. in Saugus, Veterans Council members will place flags at veterans’ graves in Riverside Cemetery, with the parade to proceed down Jackson Street to Lincoln Avenue to Town Hall.
In Lynn, Memorial Day observances will be held on Monday beginning with the Polish Legion of American Veterans service at 10 a.m. in Breed Square followed by the parade at 1:30 p.m. It starts at Market Street and ends at Pine Grove.
In Swampscott, Monday’s observances will be held at the veterans lot in Swampscott Cemetery beginning at noon followed by an open house at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post Hall, 8 Pine St.
The Memorial Day parade is set for 9:30 a.m. at Short Beach and proceeds to the wharf for a ceremony. After proceeding down Nahant Road past Town Hall, a ceremonies will be held in the cemetery and Veterans Park.
A Memorial Day parade will be held in Lynnfield at 8:15 a.m. at Our Lady of Assumption Church.
Ceremonies will be held at the South Burying Ground on Salem Street and Willow Cemetery on Summer Street. After a recess at the South Lynnfield fire station, the parade will reassemble at the middle school at 10 a.m. and proceed to the West Burying Ground, Old Burying Ground and Forest Hill Cemetery for ceremonies.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @GaylaCawley.