5.29.2022 - Presentation of Honor Wreaths - Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

we have a winner all righty good afternoon everybody good afternoon everybody yeah it's a beautiful day today it's a real beautiful day today um my name is brian leblanc i'm the president of roland thunder mass chapter one and we're going to kick off and welcome to rolling thunder 34. we're happy to see so many of you come out on this beautiful memorial day weekend to help honor and remember those that paid

the ultimate sacrifice i knew it was going to be a beautiful day beautiful day today in january how well we had a committee meeting uh a few weekends in gym i think it was a weekend in january right now michelle you remember this too and one of our presidents jeff from vermont he said i know memorial day 22 is going to be a beautiful day we're like how do you know bro he goes because 21 sucked

this year you're hiding from the sun last year you were hiding from the pelting rain so jeff wherever you are thanks bro appreciate it uh we have a member just to talk about roland thunder we have a member here from rolling thunder who's going to be speaking a little bit later in this program to give you a taste of who we are and what we do so without

further ado i want to give the mic to a distinguished gentleman who i've had the pleasure of working with the last few months fall river is bill demares thank you all very much um i want to thank each and every one of you who came down on your motorcycles on your cars i'm sure you didn't walk but you found a way to get here today and four river appreciates it we welcome you and we're

sharing the same mission forever and rolling thunder and the four war veterans council of honoring and remembering those that made the ultimate sacrifice our brothers and sisters who never came home uh there'll be a few things going on today we'll try and make go smoothly so far i've got to be honest with you part of my day of the ceremony has not gone so smoothly but with this crew how can i make a mistake right

okay uh i like to call chaplain for the fourth war veterans council ed bailey isn't this a beautiful day the lord has given us yes thank god well the president of roland thunder stole my thunder i think but i'm going to talk to the other guy please uncover father thank you so much for giving us such a beautiful day it's been a busy weekend and another day to go and we need your blessings for that also

lord but look around here look around with all the veterans that are here and all those minds i can remember brothers and sisters that have gone before us we thank you lord and we ask you for your blessings upon those that are looking down upon us i'm sure i'm sure of that whether they say hura or they said welcome brother welcome veterans all lord bless these brothers and sisters for all their travelings

bless them as they go home and bless this day and help them to remember that you are the the one and only to to give us the weather to give us everything and to keep us here today there was a reason why we came back and that was the brothers and sisters that went before us please remember that amen cover thank you traveler my pleasure you get police honor guard city of fall river

please post the colors

all veterans whether you have a wearing a cover or not wearing a cover according to the department of defense you are allowed to salute so when colors come by please use that to salute

so oh

hey

is

you can all join me please i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you very much okay next on our agenda today please give a warm welcome to miss rachel raposa of the fall river traffic department to sing our national anthem oh say can you see by the dawns of the light what so

proudly we have at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare my bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled bender head away or the land the free and the home of the brave

at this time let's call up the mirror of the city of fall river mayor paul coogan please have a seat

all right first of all i want to thank everybody for coming down to fall river today obviously to join us on memorial day is very special as we honor the people that all made the ultimate sacrifice or supported our country across the world in every shape and form of battle that that they participated in it's extremely important to the city of fall river to do a proper honoring of these people with the wall

behind us or the iwo jima memorial and to have all the rolling thunder people come down today makes it doubly special this is about the fourth event today so we'll have some more tomorrow and then we'll wrap up another memorial day weekend but we sure do hope you come back in the future and uh go out to eaton fall river spend some time here and of course join us next year at memorial day

with that being said i have to acknowledge a number of people with the rolling thunder that came down to help uh put this event on so we're going to give them an official city of fall river mayoral citation and they're all going to read the same thing so i won't read every one but it says the rolling thunder in honor and recognition of your contribution and participation in honoring our vietnam veterans k-i-a

and we all know what that means and again this is very important so the first president or representative i'll call up is from chapter one new hampshire

for coming down next up is chapter two new hampshire from the rolling thunder is there a representative for that group oh here he

i want to thank bill dufour for accepting this for chapter 2 new hampshire thank you thanks again our third one is for chapter 3 new hampshire do we have a representative from chapter three new hampshire that would like to come down three new hampshire he has a better voice than i do

to keep it moving next up is chapter one vermont all right

what's your name phil phillips bill phillips new hampshire three vermont chapter one what's your name jeff knight jeff where you're from in vermont uh we're actually from western mass oh okay we filter into vermont there you go across the border thank you very much chapter one maine chapter one maine jessica jessica again he does not need a mic i have kids

next up is chapter two maine they believe someone's stealing your bike chapter one maine and chapter two maine here we go this is two main okay two main what's your name i want to thank dave cox next up chapter one mass chapter one massachusetts right behind me one and only with bruce you all know brian he'll be yelling the names in a minute thank you thank you very much thank you very much chapter 2 massachusetts

it comes mean okay and next up is chapter one rhode island come on jess and right now we have yes yes chapter chapter one maine jesse's calling you girlfriend

thank you jessica violet and finally i have one more chapter one rhode island larry brunell thank you thank you larry that closes my part of the program and i hope the rest of it goes just as smooth as that only kidding thank you guys mr man we still need you understanding rolling thunder i can't give you any colors right now everybody please if you have any cameras we want to preserve this moment

forever wants to run for governor

okay

one more picture in the background

oh next of course yep i like to call up brian and i like to call up a gentleman that is the chairman of the vietnam memorial wall committee and a lot of them are here today uh because the wall committee people are here today including our ambassadors please stand up linda stand up dr spreager brendo asking is where's harry harry tyrion dress blues where he's hot he's already standing he's already

standing oh it's okay that was a short joke he said but nothing never mind all right but right now we are going to call joe marshall uh the chairman of the that for about three years uh brought us together to build this wall all in one second here joe thank you thank you thank you very much dr sprague asked me to keep it brief so i only took one page um i'd like to thank the

elected officials who've stayed linda pereira and raposo and the mayor alan silvia was here earlier but there's so much going on in the city and i i want to thank them even though they're not here for all the help in getting the wall uh built um armed forces day is for those that are still in uniform veterans day is for those who hung their uniforms up memorial day is for those who never made it out of

their uniforms how we honor those who did not return home is through memorial day it's with a humble heart that i welcome you you all to this site of the replica of the vietnam wall that stands in washington d.c it took us four years two years of covert to get it done but i'm happy to say uh the members of the 16 members we started with the 16 members that's a should we hit the crowd

all right the the 16 members that we started with five years ago uh we stayed together and now we're maintaining the wall uh we dedicated this wall on may 15th last year to all the men and women on the wall so that their names and memories could go on forever they never got a chance to be what they could have been we need to be sure that what we do with our future

makes them proud and honor them whenever we can these are true heroes and heroes don't die as long as we remember them every day should be memorial day thank you for coming

thank you mr marshall now i'd like to introduce the fall river veterans service officer to come up and say a few words miss michaela britto

good afternoon and thank you all for coming today and it is quite the honor to have everybody here so that we can honor and remember those who have gone on before us i'd most importantly want to recognize our gold star family members who are here today would you please stand

thank you um i'd also like to take recognition for one of our most recent um departed from here in city of fall river um sergeant first class william j burdick passed away on may 20th 2022 so i'd like to take a quick moment of silence for him and his family

thank you and again i'm truly honored to have everybody here in the city of fall river honoring and remembering all of our veterans who have gone on before us we have 40 monuments across the city and so we've been doing multiple memorial services for the past four days so we still have a few more to come so if you're here in the area tomorrow we'd love to have you join us i'm starting

out at snake hill that honors our global war on terror at 11 30 our miller monument for our polish members at battleship cove at noon and then at 130 kennedy park the fall river war veterans and then our parade starting at two following a ceremony at city hall i'm sorry i'm plugging all the events but again thank you for being here and um truly an honor the next person we'd like to call upon to address everyone

in photo there are 16 veterans organizations vfw american legion uh m vets and go on and on on disabled american veterans and they're under the umbrella of the fall of a war veterans council i'd like to call upon the commander robert gunner to say a few words

good afternoon everyone my name is bob gaiman i am the commander of the florida war veterans council on behalf of our 16 veteran organizations i thank roland thunder new england i'm sorry no one could hear you with the plane you started getting in the way okay i'm tired start again no congregate with the planes oh okay my name is bob garnon i am the commander of the far river veterans war council on behalf of 16

veteran organizations i thank roman thunder new england and the city of fall river for being our partner in today's special memorial reef relaying event but i especially want to thank each and every one of you for taking the effort and taking the time to attend this honor reef presentation ceremony today i am a veteran of the united states army who served in vietnam and it means the world to me to see

firsthand that there are american citizens who appreciate and respect our veterans who made the ultimate surprise your present at this event fills my heart and comforts my soul it spends the message that my brothers and sisters who were killed in action but not forgotten they will and now remembered by so many good people you when a man and woman joins the military they swear an oath of office to syrup

they also swear an old to give up their lives if necessary and those who have died in the in the fight for freedom ask for only one thing to be remembered so i am so very proud of rowan thunder members and the civilian citizens of far river who gave not forgotten their unique sacrifice and will always remember them as a commander of the foreign award veterans council thank you thank you mr guyan thank you very much

excuse me oops i didn't do that right no but you can take the blame i'll take the blame another corner oh while they're fixing that just to keep the ball rolling here i'd like to introduce to you um mr jeffrey doc stewart who is the liaison for new england rolling thunder to come up and say a few words about what rolling thunder is all about dock

that's all right i'll go on this side well good afternoon everyone uh before i get going too much on my very short i promise i've got somebody timing me out in the audience i just want to acknowledge and appreciate not only the fall river veterans council and all the committee that worked so hard to put this together from plainsville casino down through today i also want to take a second and

recognize the public safety members that supported us on the route sheriffs and a big hunk of our public safety folks are veterans in case people didn't know that stay in new hampshire uh 63 of our state troopers are veterans so just as a sidebar uh doc stewart i am a veteran united states army i was a medic and when i got out of the military i continued i've got 35 years as a paramedic

in addition to being a paramedic i also do mental health on the side and i'm here today as the new england regional liaison for rolling thunder we now have nine chapters in our organization here in new england we have about 90 nationwide and i first did my washington dc trip in 1995 and then i had to think about it and i finally joined the organization in 99 and then it's history from there

but rolling thunder's mission primary mission is to educate the public about the prisoners of war missing in action issues and to advocate for the veteran for the entitlements and i choose that word intentionally because we've earned them they're not a benefit they are an entitlement came with our oath i'll give you my life in return you take care of me that's mental and physical so we advocate for that we remember

and demand accountability for our government for the prisoners of war and missing in action so real quick 1987 two vietnam veterans artie mueller dan manzo we're having uh lunch stories change over the years sometimes i say drinks but good good um history as it was lunch and they were co-misrating and i choose that word intentionally they're both vietnam both were infantry combat veterans and they were

commiserating about the fact that they left guys they knew behind prisoners of a war missing in action and they decided to take action and the following year in 1988 they had the first demonstration ride in washington dc on motorcycles and other cars were participatory and there's about 2 500 and that was the first nationwide demonstration and it was in washington dc and back then in 1988 you

could actually get up towards the white house and they circled the white house and went up and down constitution ave and made their presence known demanding full accountability for the prisoners of war missing an action that they left behind 32 years later as uh steve sauro was the assistant new england regional liaison talked up at plain plainville this morning we moved it from the national

demonstration to local regional demonstrations and right now there's about 16 of them going on nationwide all kicked off at 12 noon and all talking about memorial day and demonstrating demanding accountability why do i tell you that this is memorial day we honor the men and women who gave and i choose that word intentionally they gave the ultimate sacrifice they gave their life in defense this country

i i mentioned earlier i've been in public safety for 35 years and i have had to do in my career several death notifications now sometimes i've done it right on scene sometimes i've done it in the hospital sometimes i've had to go to the residence and make that knock on the door and have that conversation with a mother a father a brother a sister a husband a wife and say i'm sorry your loved one is dead

and you say it that way you make the apology you say they are dead and you wait and you wait intentionally for the reaction and the reaction varies sometimes it's anger sometimes it's sadness sometimes it's outburst sometimes it's total denial you wait for that reaction and then you support the family as they go through that process and here today at memorial day we are recognizing the men and women who gave

the ultimate sacrifice they gave their life and we recognized the men and women who did that and we acknowledged the families who paid the price because they were the recipient of that notification two military members in full uniform depending on the branch walked up and gave notice and had to say your husband wife son daughter brother sister was killed in the military and we thank them

and we sit for a second we let that notification set in and then we go about our support process but rolling thunder recognizes the pows and mias those that that haven't come home i want you to think for a minute this god forbid but for those there are some in the audience that have had this when you were the recipient of that death notification you are told your relative died it's definitive killed in action injured

didn't survive their injuries they're dead but if you're a family member of a pow or an mia you're not told that you're told or you're giving a telegram or a notification that says you're husband wife brother sister daughter son is a prisoner of war or is missing in action it's a very different situation and when i make notifications and i and i tell the family that i'm sorry your relative is dead i pause

and there's that process that occurs there is no pause when they become a pow and mia because we don't know and the family member doesn't know they don't know what happened they don't know if they're dead no one knows that's why they're classified persons of war or missing in action and rolling thunder incorporated advocates and supports and demands accountability of our government for not only

the man or woman who is or was p-o-w-m-i-a but also for that family so at some point someone can go up and say thank you for the sacrifice your family member gave and the price you paid but right now with our pow ma mia issues we can't conclude that we can't put that to rest they're unknown i don't know where they are i don't know where they what's happened were they killed maybe

were they imprisoned and then tortured and then died maybe we don't know so organizations such as rolling thunder and other organizations that are here in the audience today we advocate full accountability demand for accountability so that our government doesn't forget that the prisoner of war is missing in action we demand the accountability so that family can have that moment of understanding and process that says

my brother sister mother daughter died for this country they're gonna get recognized on memorial day and we're gonna be able to put that in place in context in our head we advocate for those that can't do that yet and that's the mission of rolling thunder incorporated to educate the pers the public about the prisoners of war missing in action issues to advocate for our veterans and veterans entitlements

our rights that we've earned and to demand that full accountability so that's rolling thunder incorporated think i'm under my time so again thank you all very much we appreciate you being here today thank you thank you not me now i'd like to introduce bill damares wall river veterans war council to read the vietnam wall poem to the wall before we do your friend director to your ladies names

shirley wood shirley wood and beverly johnson beverly johnson and john cavallo give you step forward as we're reading the poem through the wall we'd like to ask you who have all lost relatives in vietnam their relatives are on this wall brendan's case i know it's her their father so uh they'll be laying the wreaths we'll read the phone excuse me while you're sitting there while you're sitting there in

the chair standing under a tree or in the hot sun think about a bunch of old men taking the bus down to washington dc for the first time to see the wall and this uh these are some of the thoughts of one particular veteran on that bus do you have your attention please our hair was thin and balding our stomachs heavy and round some of us limped and some of us wheezed

as our feet hit the ground we moved slowly at first as if on a sweep for minds each of us making a journey to a moment back in time then the wall rolls before us black panels end to end and each of us began looking searching for a brother for a friend our emotions spilled with memories from those days so long ago of fire fights and brothers and arms most we didn't know

then they spoke to us our brothers etched in stone they told us to be proud stand tall and welcome home they said together we swore an oath to serve he did not hesitate or ask why each of us did our duty knowing full well we could die and now we vietnam veterans the world's forever chiseled names encourage you to live your lives without regret or shame we were killed in action in naam's jungles long ago

but we will always walk beside you wherever you may go be proud you serpent honor and don't hesitate to say you answered america's call to arms you did not run away and to america we have but one request may this immortal war remind you vietnam veterans gave their very best thank you

thank you at this time we like to call upon world war two veterans that are here manny step forward you all very much thank you the wreaths are already placed at the monuments throughout this park but we like them to be recognized manny is 98 years old he's turner manny 98 years old bronze star recipient

to be here today

veterans here earl come forward please this is your boy dad former city council of fall river very active on the war veterans council really i'd like to say a couple of words to them no thank you be served in silence and an honor give a round of

have any applause here from the mid-east war from iraq afghanistan is anybody here please step forward this is another gentleman that's serious that's on the war veterans council the two young ladies please step forward

again you know what when i was in there were very few women now look at this and more women than men give a round of applause thank you for your service i know we have some gold star family members here there's more than quite a few so if the gold star feeling here was to please step up here any gold staff joey joanne here

please come forward

is everybody here i want to tell you these people here i lost an uncle about seven years old and never came back but these people are most recent and they're still living with the loss of their immediate loved one so please at least give a round of applause

you know what it's like and if you have a high score thank you all very much

we have world war two we have korea we have the ghost stars uh am i forgetting any portuguese i hate to say that probably a million portuguese jump out anybody here from portuguese say raise your hand stand up

one second and now thank you very very much well thank you lenny tavares we appreciate it and now uh vietnam veterans any of my brothers and sisters left from vietnam i recently found out that on the last living these young people to keep us going thank you ryan yes sir call for coach go to the back uh bagpiper american beautiful okay have her do it now i'd like to this thing on yes

turn it off turn it off on me set me up now once again please i'd like to introduce miss kerrigan nelson again for singing carrick is not here she left no no it's not carol good care getting quick oh she left that's right we have rachel make sure i was just checking you bill way to go could i please have miss rachel reposer again for singing of um america the beautiful sorry about

that i'm doing america the beautiful anyone you want america which one is that yes they changed the song and they changed my name while they were at it no no no we're going to do one because everyone is melting everyone up here is melting so they're all in suit coats oh beautiful four spacious skies four amber waves of grain for purple mountain's majesties above the fruited plain american america

god shed his grace on thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to

just kidding miss rachel excuse me okay okay before we do that okay uh vietnam war you walked by the wall you've been at the wall you see there's some bricks over there he did the same thing to me this time he did he's paying me back for when i turn the button no try to give it to him yeah yeah you guys would back him up because you're all rolling thunder anyways

anyways uh i want to make mention joe just reminded me that we only have 21 spots left for bricks here at the vietnam wall you do not have to be a vietnam veteran to have a brick there but there are memory bricks in honor of the people on the wall and to keep their memory alive and your memory alive but memory of your loved one the applications are here joe has them joe

there were 150 yes 150 for each brick okay so if you're interested please see joe run him over when before he gets out of the place thank you very much brian yes i have to be quick we're going to call for the colors next good retire what do you want to do good holes right retire college please stand what tap tap sorry capture coke his ball it is taps please give one second please

send attention if you have a cover on or not a cover if you are a veteran you're allowed to salute

thank you all of the police on a guy please retire the colors

oh

so

i don't think

nope

thank you very much just a couple of closing words on behalf of roland thunder michelle could you please come up here since michelle really helped me co-chair this event so i would really like her up here with me sit down please sit down just for another remark i know we're all melting my partner in crime don't make fun of michelle except for him he can whip your ass for a while look look

all right because i know where everybody's melting here in closing i'd like to thank some of the people that have made this ceremony possible first of all mr bill demares behind me and all the members of the fall river veterans war council the fall river police on a guide yes earlier today miss kerrigan nelson mayor paul coogan miss linda pereira fall river vso michael labrito rachel raposa of the fall river traffic

enforcement mr joe marshall vietnam wall committee commander robert geinin doc stewart our rolling thunder new england liaison chief bill bellard have i said that right but chief billard reverend andy stinson and for those of you who don't know the ladies and gentlemen that helped escort our gold fire families up here they're the bmc durfee high school cadets like to thank miss thomas dalton and miss

caitlin domer thank you very much thanks to all of you that were up here today and sharing with us how memorial day has had an impact on you i'm sure when we hear memorial day we have a lot of free preconceived notions about what it is some of us might think it's about beers cookouts grilling steak days off from work etc then there's some others that think a little bit about a bit

differently just ask the gold star johnson family over there and how her family ask any of these other gold star families how about any of you veterans that'll go by a headstone and put a quarter a dime a nickel or a penny on it i'll bet they look at memorial day a little bit different huh behind me there's 58 318 reasons for some of us to think differently and that's just vietnam

let's add about another 25 000 reasons from other wars that never made it 39 people on this wall are from massachusetts that are still m.i.a they still have the cross beside their name they're waiting on that diamond only as a village and not any one person will be able to get all of our brothers and sisters home where they belong together we will hold our government accountable for all of our servicemen

and women that never came home with this i leave you with a quote from john logan a united states politician a union general during the american civil war and an author who played a pivotal role in creation of memorial day let no vandalism of avarice or neglect no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic thank you

on behalf of roland thunder i just want to thank the city of fall river you guys have just been awesome to us um all you folks who are still here there is food and drink back at the liberal club you're all invited they've got a live band so please join us to have some fun we really appreciate everybody who came out for us today you have no idea how much it means thank you so much

my closing remarks and simple i have none except reverend stinson could you please close us out remember the liberal club is not too far from here live band dj prizes free food portuguese buffet so make sure you go there from here thank you in 2005 i served as an army chaplain and uh had the honor of being invited to ride to the wall and uh it was truly one of the most

spectacular events of my life to bear witness to hundreds of thousands of veterans and motorcycles bearing witness to their brothers and sisters that were lost i invite you now to pray with me lord into heaven we ask that you bless every rider here keep them safe watch over them send your angels to ride with them lift up the gold star families who's who's our whose heavy hearts still ache

inspire in us and in our hearts and in every name we see upon this wall on every monument in this park every soul that that passed into the next life and gave the last full measure of devotion to their nation let them know that they are not forgotten that we do remember and that we carry and ride with them each day go forth and know god's blessing upon you this day amen

this concludes our ceremony let's eat let's eat let's beat let's put the wheels on the road and go