Memorial Day 2024

"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army."

- George Washington
August 27, 1776

On a warm summer morning in a field at Long Island, New York General George Washington spoke those words to an anxious group of young men gathered there to defend an idea.

Their belief in a free nation where the rights of a citizen were bestowed upon them by God and not by a king was radical at the time, but one worth fighting for, and, if necessary, dying for.

General Washington could not have had any idea at the time how true his words would become.

With the outcome of the struggle gravely in doubt, brave young men summoned the courage to lay upon the altar of freedom their life, their liberty and their fortune.

Included among those early patriots were the boys from Waltham.

As our Nation pauses to honor those who gave the last full measure of devotion in defense of our liberty we owe a special debt of gratitude to every generation of veterans, but especially to those who never made it back to neighborhoods across our city.

As you read their names, please remember that they were the kids that we see today on School Street, and on Lake Street, and on Hall Street, and on Main Street, and on Prentice Street and along Moody Street.

Remember that each of these kids had a unique voice and a hair color and a talent and a fault and a wit and a way of walking and a family left with a deep hole made by their passing.

During an interview for the finale of the highly acclaimed series 'Band of Brothers', based upon the Stephen Ambrose book of the same title, the leader of that band of brothers, Dick Winters, spoke of a grandchild who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?". His reply, softly spoken and through misty eyes, remembering his lost comrades, "No . . . but I served in a company of heroes".

If your child ever needs to write a report about a genuine American hero, there are more than three-hundred stories to choose from right here in Waltham.

These boys from Waltham left home for the last time never to see another ball game or to open a Christmas gift or to blow out birthday candles or to see their children grow. They met the tides of history and of circumstance with courage, devotion and selfless determination.

Remember them and pray for them. Pray also for their beloved families who paid a terrible price in handing their souls over to eternity and pray that the cause for which they gave their lives will never be forsaken.

Revolutionary War

Abijah Brown, Jr.
Abijah Childs
Isaac Crosby
Elijah Cutting
Roger Dench
Thomas Gardner

Civil War

Rufus Babcock
William Baldwin
Hiram Banks
Theodore Barnes
Orson Baxter
John Blake
George Brown
Charles Brown
Henry Burgess
Henry Carr
Joe Corrigan
John Dillon
Ed Doherty
John Donnigan
Henry Durivage
Tom Egan
Lyman Fairbanks
George Falls
Lyman Field
Patrick Flynn
John Gillespie
B.S. Harrington
David Hatch
Ed Hatch
William Hayes
Ed Hickey
Joseph Holbrook
Maynard Holbrook
Henry Howe
Roger Kane
George Lawton
Thomas Lawton
Michael McBride
Patrick McGuire
Francis Miles
Leonard Miller
Darius Moore
James Murray
John Newcomb
James O'Hearn
Anderson Posher
Francis Priest
Nahum Rand
F.P.H. Rogers
James Rooney
Horace Sanderson
Samuel Savage
Robert Sherman
Simon Smith
Tom Stickney
George Stone
Daniel Sullivan
Charles Traynor
John Thayer

Spanish American War

George E. Adams
James M. Dermody
Edward P. Doherty
Bernard M. Farrington
Allen M. McCullough
Charles Minnock
Robert J. Parnell
Dominick Walsh

World War I

Charles Bacon
Charles Basile
William B. Benner
Joseph A. Bruce
James B. Chadwick
George A. Chisholm
Raymond J. Collette
Alexander G. Collins
Francis D. Connors
Joseph E. Cormier
Thomas J. Courtney
Charles T. Curtin
Michael Devine
Richard F. Dreyer
Walter Duddy
Allison H. Earle
Louis H. Gorman
Clifton P. Greene
John P. Grogan
Ernest Hamel
Austin E. Harvey
Leslie R. Hodge
Rudolph Isaacson
Walter T. Jensen
Marcel Kwiatskowski
James F. Lally
John L. Lannigan
Harold B. Leach
Timothy Leary
Thomas McDonald
Frank J. McBride
Charles F. McInnes
Charles F. McKenna
James McKernell
Arthur V. Mogan
Arthur P. Mooney
Ernest D. Nealon
Hiram S. Newman
Bromly Palamountain
Domenic Parise
Fred C. Pearson
Albert E. Regan
Charles J. Rennie
Charles A. Sawyer
Joseph T. Sharpe
W. Wellington Sullivan
Stanley C. Swift
John R. Thompson
William A. Thompson
Paul Underwood
Franklin W. Vincent
Walter A. Walsh
James F. Walsh, Jr.
Archie Wheeler
Earl Whittemore
Clifford H. Wilson

World War II

Guido J. Abruzzi
Glen F. Allen
Louis J. Annunciata, Jr.
Raymond J. Arsenault
Walter L. Baldwin
Robert D. Balter
Elmer J. Barden
Francis A. Barnicle
Samuel J. Barron
Anselm L. Belliveau
Richard K. Bills
Leo J. Biron
Edward H. Black
John J. Bononi
Leo A. Boucher
William B. Boulton
Gordon E. Bouret
Gerald C. Breen
Hollis E. Brodrick
John S. Callahan
Charles J. Carney
Armand J. Casale
Henry L. Castagnetti
Robert L. Coleman
Robert E. Collins
Thomas F. Connors
George E. Conant
Frederick Cormier
Joseph P. Coughlan
James P. Cronin
John P. Crossland
Daniel F. Cushing
John DeMatteo
Americo D'Orazio
Ronald B. Dorrington
J. Clarence Doucette
Frederick J. Dowcett, Jr.
William R. Duane
John M. Duffy, Jr.
Harold C. Durkin
Robert W. Elder
S. Barton Eldridge
Richard L. Felt
Alfonse J. Ferrera
Michael Ford
William J. Forte
Paul H. Frechette
Harry Freedman
John F. Furdon
Charles R. Gallagher
John B. Gordon
Vaughn P. Grant
Merrill Grapes
Raymond E. Hadley
Thomas R. Halleran
Roy D. Halloran
James T. Harron
James F. Hart
Raymond F. Healion
Richard K. Henry, Jr.
Glenn C. Hepler
George E. Higgins, Jr.
William R. Hitchcock
William G. Houghton
Herbert F. Ingersoll
Bernard Jacobs
Benjamin F. Jakubik
Edwin E. Johnson
Francis J. Joyce, Jr.
Samuel Kaitz
Phillip F. Keefe
Henry J. Kelly, Jr.
Donald K. Kenneson
Robert A. Klug
Francis H. Kneeland
Philip A. Lanzo
George H. Large
Edward F. LaRosee
Arthur J. Lazazzero
William LeClair
William H. Leonard
Walter Luke
Robert A. Lyons
Joseph T. McCarthy
Charles E. McCullough
George E. McDonald
Earl A. MacDougall
Elmer J. McFarland
Warren I. MacRae
Joseph A. Madden
Joseph P. Maguire
John J. Mahoney, Jr.
Vincenzo Mandile
Robert C. Mansur
John F. Maroney, Jr.
Leonard M. Melanson
Harold A. Meyer, Jr.
John J. Minahane
Donald M. Morrison
John W. Murphy
Joseph T. Murphy
Lawrence J. Murphy
Thomas E. Murphy
Romeo A. Natoli
Thomas P. Noone
Sunda Palumbo
Lester F. Patterson
John P. Peirce, Jr.
Francis P. Pendergast
Edgar H. Peterson
Salvatore Picone
Francis J. Powers
Warren B. Pratt
George S. Purdy
Robert A. Qualters
Lawrence K. Reade
Edward J. Recka
Jerome Rizzo
Rosario Rizzo
Norman D. Robinson
Lawrence L. Rogers
John F. Ryan
Frank Savino
David E. Scott
Homer Sewall, Jr.
Arthur F. Shaughnessy
Raymond P. Shaughnessy
Harry E. Shubley, Jr.
Ernest Seigel
Robert A. Sloper
Chadborn Smith
Andrew Stanton
William A. Stanton
Edward C. Stearns, Jr.
Maxwell D. Stone
Christopher P. Straggas
James J. Sullivan, Jr.
Fred B. Sweetland
Domenic G. Tambascia
Edmund J. Thibeault
Lloyd W. Wade
Henry F. Walazek
Harold G. Walley
Leslie D. Walsh
John H. Watson
Roger R. Wellington
Charles E. Yeo
Kermit W. Youngquist
Bernard A. Zacame, Jr.

Korea

Joseph P. Aucoin
Frederick C. Berry, Jr.
Norman C. Brackett
William J. Burke, Jr.
Donald O. Campbell
Robert G. Curran
Robert C. Dakin
Joseph F. Hession, Jr.
Robert W. Howard
J. Allen Hurd
Raymond R. LaCava
Frederick E. Lamport
James L. McDonnell
John J. McLaughlin
Richard S. Scalia

Vietnam

Lawrence R. Duffy
Paul A. Dupere
Reginald J. Gautreau
Peter Gilmore
David P. Ingersoll
Thomas F. Jackson
Paul C. King, Jr.
Roderick J. McDonald
Kenneth F. Moores
Michael B. Murphy
Thomas E. O'Neill, Jr.
Joseph P. Rando
John M. Sullivan
Thomas J. Vezeau
Craig W. Wedge
Robert S. Wheeler

Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan

Brian J. Ouellette

. . . may their memories be eternal.

This Memorial Day Remembrance is dedicated in loving memory of my uncle and namesake, Lt. Francis J. Joyce, Jr., U.S. Army Air Corps, and the crew of his B-17 ‘Flying Fortress’; nicknamed ‘Ain’t Misbehaven’. 

My uncle, ‘Buddy’ as he was known around the city, was 24 when he died. A 1937 graduate of Waltham High he attended college at Harvard and the University of New Hampshire. When he joined the service in 1942 he, like so many of his friends and neighbors, joined a cause greater than themselves, not being sure of the outcome but being sure of their duty. 

Shortly after ten in the morning on May 8, 1944, his formation was attacked over Berlin, Germany by enemy fighter planes. The sole survivor of the attack, Sergeant Bob Swift, after being freed from a German POW camp in April, 1945, issued his statement to the War Department; “...enemy fighter fire knocked the ship to pieces in mid-air. I was blown out of my top turret gunner position and bailed out. The other nine members of the crew went down without a chance to bail out. Later saw remains of crew around the ground.” 

During year-long daylight missions over Europe in preparation for the D-Day assault that would come a month later, the Eighth Air Force lost half its men in battle. In helping to free an enslaved continent from ruthless tyranny the enormity of their sacrifice is beyond measure. 

8th Air Force, 96th Bomb Group, 339th Squadron B-17G Air Crew 42-38190

1/Lt. James W. Fitzpatrick [ Pilot KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. Thomas E. Falls [ Co-Pilot KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. James W. Cline [ Navigator KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. Francis J. Joyce, Jr. [ Bombardier KIA 8MAY44 ]

T/SGT Robert T. Swift [Engineer/Top Turret POW 8MAY44 – RIP 1JUN06 ]

T/SGT Raymond G. Garafolo [ Radio Operator KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Buford V. McCarson [ Asst. Engineer/Waist Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Hersal B. Cralle [ Asst. Radio Operator/Ball Turret KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Charles H. Suessmann [ Armorer/Tail Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Donald L. Voorhees [ Asst. Armorer/Waist Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ] 

Requiescat in Pace