Since the coronavirus has canceled Memorial Day parades and traditional ceremonies, North Shore communities have opted to take a different approach to ensure their fallen veterans are honored this year.
Local cities and towns are still holding Memorial Day ceremonies, but many are choosing to pre-record their observances and broadcast them on their local television stations for the remainder of the week.
To adhere to social distancing protocols, the public won’t be in attendance at any ceremonies recorded in the days leading up to or streamed live on Memorial Day.
Although the virus has largely made this year’s Memorial Day a virtual holiday, communities have still been carrying out other annual traditions, such as flagging their veterans’ graves, while some municipalities are also incorporating new ways to honor their fallen.
“Because of COVID-19 we have to do things differently, but some things don’t change and one thing that doesn’t change is our obligation to remember the fallen,” said Michael Sweeney, veterans’ agent for Lynn and Swampscott. “So it becomes an issue of how we do it, not if we do it, to let the families of the fallen know they’ll never be forgotten.”
Lynn/Swampscott
Sweeney is hosting separate virtual ceremonies for Lynn and Swampscott, which will be pre-recorded and shown on each municipality’s local cable station throughout the holiday week.
During Lynn’s ceremony, the names of the city’s fallen, from World War II on were read by Sweeney, Sgt. Major Kenneth Oswald and Master Sgt. Gerald Goncalo, who are both involved with the Lynn English Junior ROTC team, and Anthony Nash, a U.S. Navy veteran from Lynn.
The name reading concludes with Gold Star mother Doris Syrakos reading the name of her son, Antonio Syrakos, who served in Afghanistan and died after returning home in 2013.
Mayor Thomas M. McGee and City Council President Darren Cyr delivered brief remarks in Lynn Auditorium, where the tribute was recorded, and Carolyn Cole, director of the Downtown Lynn Cultural District, sang the National Anthem.
This year marked the first time that Lynn’s Memorial Day parade was canceled for a non-weather related reason in many years, according to Sweeney.
“In the early 2000s, it was canceled because of the monsoon,” said Sweeney. “We’ve never canceled it for anything other than weather in my memory.”
In Swampscott, an outdoor wreath-laying ceremony was held at Swampscott cemetery, which featured a small group of veterans and Gold Star families to adhere to social distancing.
Jackie Raymond, mother of Army specialist Jared Raymond, who was killed in Iraq in 2006, and Ray Harris, father of U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Jennifer Harris, who was killed in Iraq in 2007, were both involved in the ceremony.
In both communities, a “hardcore group of volunteers” was out in the past couple of weeks flagging veterans’ graves at the veterans’ lot and Pine Grove Cemetery in Lynn and the Swampscott Cemetery, Sweeney said.
The Lynn/Swampscott veterans’ department is also getting creative with encouraging residents from both communities to take part in a “Front Porch Salute,” this Memorial Day weekend.
Residents are asked to display patriotic tributes on their front porches, doors and lawns and then post a photo of their decorations on the “LynnSwampscottVets” Facebook page.
Saugus
In Saugus, plans are minimal compared to past years. The town usually hosts a Memorial Day parade and ceremonies at both Riverside Cemetery and Town Hall, which all had to be canceled, according to Saugus veterans’ service officer Jay Pinette.
In lieu of traditional celebrations, the American Legion is hosting a small ceremony at Riverside Cemetery at 10 a.m. on Memorial Day, which will be taped for a future broadcast on the town’s local cable station.
The brief ceremony will feature a few speakers, including Pinette, a performance of “Taps,” and an opening and closing prayer from the clergy.
Typically, people stand on the veterans’ graves and there’s a flagging ceremony where flags are placed on the graves at the same time, but that portion of the tribute had to be canceled for social distancing purposes, according to Pinette.
With the ceremonial grave flagging canceled, the graves were flagged in the cemetery ahead of time this week. Graves were also flagged in the small veterans’ lot near the memorial at Town Hall, Pinette said.
“I think certainly the veterans population I’ve been in communication with is quite disappointed, but it kind of is what it is in the new normal we’re living in,” said Pinette.
“Memorial Day, at least for that portion of the population, it’s almost a bit of a holy day for a lot of people, particularly the veteran population. I think a lot of people understand the urgency of the situation but it’s disappointing nonetheless.”
The town will also honor the fallen and Gold Star families this year by illuminating some of the memorials at Town Hall in gold on Sunday and Monday night, Pinette said.
“I think the pandemic places into focus when there are times of turmoil, there are people that run towards danger when most of us are trying to run away from it,” said Pinette. “The people we honor on Memorial Day are the people who ran towards danger and gave their lives.”
Peabody
In Peabody, the American Legion is hosting a small virtual ceremony at Cedar Grove Cemetery, which will be streamed live at 8:30 a.m. Memorial Day on Peabody Access TV, Youtube and Facebook.
Speakers will include Mayor Edward A. Bettencourt and Bob Dunn, commander of the Peabody Veterans Council. Other participants will include three members of the Essex County Marine Corps League rifle team, who will be socially distanced, according to Steve Patten, the city’s director of veterans services.
“We discussed keeping the number small, but we thought it was important to have continuity of honoring our fallen heroes despite the current circumstances as long as we did it properly,” said Patten.
Last weekend, volunteers for the city’s veterans’ department placed more than 8,000 flags throughout 45 public and private cemeteries in Peabody, including St. Mary’s Cemetery, Cedar Grove Cemetery and Puritan Lawn Memorial Park.
Massachusetts law requires veterans’ agents to flag all veterans’ graves within their geographic boundaries each year. Communities are reimbursed up to 75 percent for the grave flagging, but until last year, Patten said Peabody was only flagging public cemeteries.
That left Puritan Lawn Memorial Park, which includes more than 3,000 graves, unflagged, which prompted Patten to inquire about whether the city could be reimbursed for flagging private cemeteries.
After Patten received the OK for reimbursement from the state, Peabody began flagging Puritan Lawn last year, and flagged numerous other private cemeteries this year.
“For years and years Peabody was just doing Cedar Grove and some of the cemeteries in Peabody that they knew weren’t private,” said Patten. “If funding wasn’t reimbursed, the city would have had to cover the full cost, (which is) very expensive.”
For Patten, ensuring that the city honors the fallen on Memorial Day is personal. Former U.S. Army Capt. Patten was deployed to Afghanistan twice with the Fourth Brigade Combat Team out of the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C.
During his two deployments, 52 of his friends from his brigade were killed, and throughout the brigade’s three deployments, 73 people were killed in action, Patten said.
It got so bad that every six days, someone was killed during his deployments in Afghanistan. Each night at dinner time, people would load caskets filled with young soldiers, many in their late teens and early 20s, onto planes during “ramp ceremonies,” he said.
“These people had their entire lives ahead of them and they gave everything, their hopes, their dreams,” said Patten. “They gave everything. If somebody doesn’t think we should have a ceremony, live, taped or otherwise, they need to have a serious reality check. They made the ultimate sacrifice for this country … So, to honor them is the least we can do every year.”
Lynnfield
Lynnfield will also have a virtual ceremony, which will start broadcasting on the town’s local cable channel this weekend and run throughout the week, according to Lynnfield veterans agent Bruce Siegel.
The ceremony will include remarks from Board of Selectmen Chairman Phil Crawford and pre-recorded remarks from state Sen. Brendan Crighton (D-Lynn) and state Rep. Bradley Jones (R-North Reading).
Siegel will read a prayer, a local Eagle Scout will read the names of the town’s fallen dating back to the Civil War, and a video recording of a “Taps” performance will be shown.
A flag has been placed at every veterans’ grave throughout the town’s five cemeteries, which took about a week to complete, Siegel said.
“Regardless of what’s shut down, we still need to remember all those who made the ultimate sacrifice to keep us free,” said Siegel.
Nahant
In Nahant, the town will locally broadcast a virtual Memorial Day video in order to maintain social distancing guidelines.
Residents can tune in to their local broadcasting channel — channel 45 for Verizon customers and channel 8 for Comcast customers — on Monday to catch the tribute, which will play on repeat all day.
The video will also be available on the town website, Nahant.org, and the Nahant Town Hall Facebook page, and is meant to take the place of Nahant’s annual Memorial Day parade.
“The impacts of the coronavirus have been unprecedented, and with public health as our number one priority, we had to cancel our typical Memorial Day parade,” Town Administrator Tony Barletta said in a statement. “I commend all those who have worked so hard to find an alternative way to honor the military men and women that made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
Memorial Day Parade Committee chairwoman Molly Conlin, Board of Selectmen representative Bobbie-Jo Blair, and Barletta worked together with many others to create what they said would be a “safe Memorial Day that also marks this historical moment in time.”
Jon Lazar, Nahant’s veterans services officer, said the ceremony was recorded at different town landmarks, including the Town Wharf where the town honors Coast Guard and Navy personnel and the Green Lawn Cemetery, where the regular Memorial Day ceremony was held with several speakers.
Flagging was completed at the Green Lawn Cemetery last week, but Nahant is also choosing to take a different approach this year.
The American Legion will raise a garrison flag, four times the size of a normal flag, at the Nahant Life Saving Station on Sunday, which will be illuminated with four yellow floodlights that night to honor Gold Star families, particularly the family of Rich Davis, a marine who died in Vietnam, Lazar said.
Twenty flags will be planted at the town’s American Legion post when the garrison flag is raised to full staff at noon on Memorial Day in honor of the 20 Nahant residents who have been killed in action, Lazar said.
“(Celebrating Memorial Day is) the highest honor that we can provide to our fallen soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our country so there was no holding back for veterans in the American Legion in the town of Nahant,” said Lazar. “It’s the highest honor we can do. They gave the ultimate sacrifice.”