4.29.2022 - Gulf War / Desert Shield Remembrance Day

good morning my name is mikayla britto and i am the director of veteran services for the city of fall river and i thank you all for being here today as we honor the gulf war desert shield desert storm remembrance day honoring sergeant first class russell g smith jr and fireman charles tavares who was from this area to begin with and they used to play together right here on the park i'd like to introduce our gold star

family members michelle who is russell's daughter jimmy suzanne and arlene who were all russell's siblings and for charlie's family bobby tavares and bobby's grandson landon and i'd also like to introduce gold star mother joanne mellow and we have rep alan sylvia we have a representative from rep viola's office and from senator roderick's office and of course the mayor present colors can we

please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by the national anthem i pledge allegiance to the flag the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all rachel raposo will now sing the national anthem what we say can you see by the dawn's early what so proudly we at the twilight's last gleaming

who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that spangled banner yet or the land of the free and the home of the

honor guard retire the colors right down forward come on

and now we'll have father rob to give us our invocation

let us pray lord god reverently on this remembrance day in your holy presence we pay our tribute of respect to those veterans who served in operation desert storm the gulf war we're grateful for their sacrifice for freedom and human rights in our world we also pause in memory and honor those who gave their lives in the gulf war desert storm in service of our country we pray that the souls of these our

heroic dead may have found perfect rest in you and receive the crown of an unfading life cherish and bless them lord we ask you and give unto us the living peace and hope as we think of them in this solemn hour before you o lord god we humbly acknowledge our debt to them and we ask you to give us the strength to go on toward the ideals for which they fought and died

may their efforts for freedom justice and peace be continued by us we ask this in your holy name amen please be seated please be seated and now we'll have a few remarks for mayor paul coogan

i'll use my uh durfee cafeteria voice and hopefully that'll carry um the gulf war in 1991 involved 700 000 u.s soldiers regretfully 219 families lost loved ones in that battle 212 men and seven women um but it was the united states again in the cause of freedom that sent out their most valuable capital to keep an area free which is the history and the tradition in our country and it's

always like i said a privilege for me to come and honor these warriors and i thank you for taking the time today out of your busy schedules to come by and honor our veterans of the gulf war thank you

and now we'll have judge macy come up and give his remarks thank you michaela um you're going to do this with with one arm which is not that easy but frankly compared to what our veterans have done and what the two honorees today have done this is a walk in the park i'm always honored when i'm asked to speak at veterans affairs particularly affairs like this that honor uh people who made

the ultimate sacrifice for their country um today we're on a two of our own vets charlie tavares whose family i do know and russell smith who i don't know but who i know because he was an american soldier was a fine soldier a brave soldier a good soldier and let me tell you you don't get to be a sergeant by accident so it is with special pride that i stand here as a veteran myself to honor

these two local heroes and through them heroes of every war we've ever fought and probably ever will fight you know the american military is special americans don't like to brag about themselves they don't like to tell the world we're special the world doesn't like to admit we're special but we are special we're americans and when i was in vietnam as an advisor i had a chance to work with some

elite units of other countries thai special forces they were called the queen's cobras australian rangers they were the guys that wore those go to hell hats with the brim tipped up and i can tell you today without equivocation without fear of contradiction the american soldier is the best trained most motivated best led simply best soldier on the face of the earth ever and we have gone all our veterans have gone

to final wars for our country but to protect other countries not because we wanted their goals not because we had anything they wanted what did afghanistan have that we wanted but the fact is the cause of freedom called and our soldiers answered now one of the things that i noticed over time was because the second world war called so many people to service there are fewer and fewer veterans

but when i was the mc for the bicentennial celebration when we dedicated the marine corps memorial i was amazed i was amazed at the number of people who showed up i was amazed at the number of veterans who showed up but i was truly amazed at who these veterans were as a master of ceremonies i got there early and as people started to trickle in the older guys came in earlier some with

walkers some on crutches some with canes then the younger guys came a lot of vietnam vets some of them came on motorcycles and then as i looked at the crowd i started to notice the decorations 101st airborne 82nd airborne first marine division special forces submarines uh fighter pilot squadrons all from fall river all who served their country when asked and then i started to notice the decorations not

just the unit patches but the decorations parachute badges glider badges combat infantryman's badges bronze stars silver stars distinguished service crosses and of course a lot of purple hearts and those men and women who i noticed i said wow i know these people these are people that i see every day in city hall paying their taxes i see them as stop and shop shopping they are ordinary people who would never say i

was a war hero they were they would never say i got this ribbon or this medal but they were and that's the true meaning of being an american fighting man you do it but you don't talk about it and those men many have passed now because quite a few years ago stand in our memories and the two men we honor today and all the other veterans since also stand in our memory and our esteem

as they should because they served one called and they served well you know there's an old woody guthrie song the sinking of the reuben james and in it there's a line that says many years have gone but still i wonder why the worst of men must fight but the best of men must die i don't think woody had the answer to that question i sure don't i don't know that we ever will

but we do know one thing when duty calls americans answer that call when duty calls americans show up take the oath salute and drive on and we've done that it seems incredible that vietnam was 50 years ago we've been to three wars since then charlie tavares first person from fall river to die in uh vietnam sergeant smith russell smith one of the last to die in iraq and it's a shame we have to give up our

people it's a shame we have to give up our best and brightest but that's the price of freedom that's why that flag flies everywhere and won't come down those colors don't run well although there's no answer to woody's question there is an answer to who will answer the call when necessary americans and i also want to say one other thing the men we honor today gave their lives to their country

but there are people today who sacrificed frankly as much or more and those are the gold star families whenever i speak the gold star families are there and whoever speaks all veterans our hearts go out to you you what can we say thank you you have blessed your country with your family hopefully your country will bless you you deserve our eternal honor and praise god bless you god bless your family

and god bless america

michelle and bobby would you please come to the podium

thank you very much i just found out moments ago that i'd be speaking so i'm not very good at this but i do want to say thank you to everyone who comes here who continues to come here um i just told a co-worker yesterday that i would not be in this morning and i said to heidi had to go to a memorial for my dad and she's like oh my goodness i'm so sorry

and i said thank you and i said it happened 31 years ago granted she's only 30 years old so she kind of looked at me funny and i said he passed away and does a storm and she had that puzzled look on her face but to me coming here every year is just a testament of how much love is around us and how much we really feel from everyone that comes comes here

every year and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts gold star family members are families because we share something that is very very strong and that's the loss of a loved one and for that um i thank you for remembering them good job morning everyone everybody can hear me right first of all i'd like to thank my family michelle susan joanne michelle and bob's around somewhere back there yet um

thank you for coming as usual this is my other family thank you everyone i see linda allen the mayor so many people of course joe thank you um but a real quick thing and i i wanted to uh is the habitats reunion committee here somewhere could you stand up please i want i want i'd like to get them recognized billy keaton sheila holland and there's countless others but they're working and doing other things

they are truly responsible for this monument here in the park they they raised money to get this here um the city took over after that and we got our blessings um to put it here and uh everything else they take care of for us so once again i want to thank them that's very important to me to thank them because one of them lived here my brother lived down the street and uh

they couldn't think of a better place to put this than here because they both played in this park together so billy sheila and all the rest of you thank you so much i appreciate it so i brought my grandson real quick i brought my oh i don't know where he oh he's over there so i'm pointing to you hey i brought my grandson here because i'm trying to teach him

all i can teach him about the importance of our veterans he's in fourth grade and sadly i don't know why they they don't teach our children anything about veterans pastor presents so um he's here today to learn and have him forbid if anything happens to vauvu um he's going to take over and and hopefully do this so i want to thank my kyla she got a hold of me about maybe four weeks ago

um wanted to know a few things about the memorial and uh i i was in touch with her ever since and uh that's how this came about so michaela thank you so much thank you all for coming michelle and bobby would you please replace the wreath

and now we will have military honors with rifle volleys and the playing of taps please stand

right

aim flash

hey

thank you please be seated at this time we'll have the release of doves by paul sorry by bill and paula dimas billy may i have one representative from each family and joanne would you please come forward linda mayor coogan rep sylvia michelle bobby

okay

do you want to sing goggles

stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above from the mountains to the prairies america my home sweet home god bless america my home sweet home and before father rob does the benediction i would just like to take a moment to thank everybody billy paula thank you for the dubs judge macy for speaking bva 207 for our military honors but most importantly i just want to thank our gold star

families and know that from the bottom of my heart you stand taller than any of my military friends that i've served with because you gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom thank you thank you let us pray almighty god bless those who have served our country especially those in the gulf war we remember an honor this day as they sacrificed themselves to advance the ideals of peace and justice

may they inspire our continued efforts towards this same end o lord we come to you seeking comfort and healing for the families of those who lost loved ones as well as for those soldiers who were wounded physically or emotionally during the time of war be with them give them perseverance and ease their suffering we also ask your strength and protection of all who put their trust in you

bless and watch over the men and women of our armed forces who protect our nation and defend freedom and liberty throughout the world protect them from all harm deliver them from the enemy and if your will bring them safely home we ask this in your holy name amen god bless you all and god bless america thank you for everyone coming out today to honor both sergeant first class smith

and sn3 tavares if you'd like we can now go over to the amvets for coffee and donuts thank you thank you great job