05/24/2026
Thank you to all who gathered at the Colchester Senior Center for today's Memorial Day Ceremony. Although the weather did not quite cooperate, we appreciate our veteran volunteers on the Parade Committee including Tom O'Meara, Dan Henderson, Al Letendre, Dave Johnson, Neal Treacarton, and Eric Holiday for helping to organize today's ceremony. I also want to thank Allyson Edwards and Taryn Scott, Colchester Fire & Emergency Medical Services, Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Company, the St. Andrews Choir, our Senior Seranders, Colchester Fife and Drum, and the American Legion, VFW, and Colchester Honor Guard.
Today, we were also joined by dignitaries state Rep. Mark DeCaprio, state Sen. Norm Needleman, and Gov. Ned Lamont as we commemorated Memorial Day in memory of those who lost their lives in service to the United States of America.
This year our nation celebrates 250 years since its founding in 1776. Two and a half centuries ago this July, our Founding Fathers came together to declare that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those words, while radical and profound, would have been meaningless if it were not for the willingness of people to stand behind them with their lives and to fight to make a nation where they are accepted as possible.
During the revolutionary war, some 25,000 Americans are estimated to have died in the continental army and colonial militias both from combat and the brutal conditions they saw including disease and starvation. Their sacrifices brought about a victory that has endured for two hundred and fifty years.
Today, we honor and remember them along with every other service member who lost their life in defense of this nation and its principles in the decades and centuries that followed.
It is true, there were moments when we nearly faltered. On the Colchester Town Green, a lone statue with a rifle bows its head above the text “Colchester Honors Its Dead Who Fell in the War for the Union”. That statue which has stood watch for over 150 years bears the names of the 22 Colchester heroes who died in the Civil War, the deadliest conflict in our nation’s history. The US congress estimates over 300,000 deaths among union forces alone.
While they did not live to see it, we know that we live in that more perfect union here today because of their sacrifices.
At times, that union has been threatened by events and actors from beyond our shores. Each time Americans have risen to the fight, many making the ultimate sacrifice to protect both us and our allies around the world, ensuring that other peoples seeking freedom and defending democracy did not stand alone.
Over 100,000 American service members lost their lives in the first World War. In the second World War, over 400,000 American service members made the ultimate sacrifice.
Soon after, 33,000 American service members died in the Korean War and nearly 50,000 in the Vietnam.
Nearly 150 service members lost their lives in the Gulf War.
In 2001, Americans fought back after al-Qaeda terrorists attacked our homeland on September 11th. In the wars and conflicts that followed in Iraq and Afghanistan over 6,000 more American service members lost their lives.
And it is important to recognize that while each of these were major wars and conflicts, American service members have lost their lives in support of the American mission in smaller operations and conflicts all around the world. Nearly 50 American service members were killed in the Dominican Civil War between 1965 and 1969. Almost 300 service members were killed in the 1982 Lebanon War. 23 service members died in the 1989 invasion of Panama. 43 died in Operation Restore Hope between 1992 and 1993 in Somalia amid the Somalian famine and Somalian civil war. And that is just to name a few from recent history.
These events are sadly often less remembered.
Today we recognize the sacrifice of those men and women too, and pay our respects to the friends, family, neighbors, and fellow service members who knew them. In total, over one million service members are believed to have lost their lives since our nation’s founding in July 1776.
Today, we must also acknowledge that the fight goes on. Since the last time we gathered for Memorial Day one year ago, 13 more US service members have been killed during military operations around Iran.
Today, as we honor and celebrate 250 years of American heroes, we recognize the huge debt of gratitude that can never be repaid to those Patriots who lost their lives in service to our country.
And so this weekend, as you enjoy the time with your own friends and families, and you appreciate the joys of living in this great town, in this great state, in this great nation: Take the time to remember why we are here. Remember what we owe to all of those service members - the ones who didn’t make it back - and to their families.
Thank you and may God bless the United States of America and our Armed Forces.
