9.29.2025 - Massachusetts 250 Veterans Legacy Trail Announcement

My name is Corey Ahonan and I'd like to welcome you all here to Battleship Cove.

I'm the assistant secretary for engagement and outreach with the executive office of veteran services and it is my pleasure to introduce Mayor Kugan.

Good afternoon, Mayor. Thanks. Thank you.

Well, we couldn't have picked a better day weatherwise, so we want to thank everyone for coming and good afternoon everybody. I want to first start out by thanking the Executive Office of Veteran Service for inviting me to provide the welcoming remarks. It is an honor to be here today to introduce the Fall River I mean I'm sorry the Massachusetts Veterans Legacy Trail here at the

historic battleship Cove. All around our city we have monuments dedicated to veterans. Bicsentennial Park is home to the Viet Vietnam Veterans Wall. A place where we can remember. A place where we can offer our greatest thanks to the soldiers who courageously gave up their lives for our freedom.

The battleship Massachusetts, which are on now, resides here at Battleship Cove.

Its present allows us to be the home of the world's largest collection of historic naval ships. The city of Fall River carries great pride in that title.

And this new initiative is going to highlight over 1300 war memorials across the Commonwealth. The top 10 locations in each region will be brought to the foreground for your reflection. While we flip through the brochure, we should consider our current freedoms and what was sacrificed to bear them. And it is my distinct pleasure to have the opportunity to introduce my good friend, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. I

don't want to get hit with the flag.

Clearly mayors have to be nimble and do a lot of things at once as you just as you just demonstrated. Good afternoon everyone. It is great to be here with you mayor in the city of Fall River on a beautiful day along with uh Reps Wlette and Fiola and Senator Rodri to celebrate um the work that we're so proud of here in Massachusetts. This vet Massachusetts veterans legacy. This new trail is a

first of a kind in the nation and as you pointed out, it's one of the most comprehensive efforts to really honor those who have served. And as someone who's been uh a military family, a Navy brat, it really means something to me for us to be able to call out this history. I was saying when I sat down, I've actually slept on Battleship Cove with uh my son's Boy Scout troop. I

think once you do that once, you don't have to do it again. Um, but I also think it really demonstrates like the amazing commitment and frankly sometimes extreme hardships that people went to who were serving. The boys had the wrapped attention of a veteran who was talking about uh the experience of someone who served and had served on this vessel and exploring all the nooks and crannies was uh just a night of

delight for all of them and then to understand the meaning of what this space meant for those who lived here and the family and the commitments and the why the why they served and what they did. There's no better way to um to to really get the attention of folks than seeing it firsthand. So, it's terrific that we still have this particular memorial. And I think this new online tool cataloged more than 1300 different

war memorials from small town greens to city centers to places like this right here in Fall River. All brought together in one interactive map, a searchable database. It's really designed to ensure that the sacrifices of our veterans and of our gold star families will be remembered not just in stone and bronze, but in the living memory of our communities across the entire Commonwealth. You know, Massachusetts is

deeply committed to supporting our service members, our veterans, and our military families. We're so grateful that we have a legislature that is such a strong partner in this a in this effort. Uh and with the passage of the Herrow Act, which is just our most recent indisha of support for veterans, we advanced one of the most comprehensive state level veteran support packages in the country in the

country right here. That strengthened healthc care access, expanded workforce training, education opportunities, and it eased that transition from military service to civilian life. It's something that I think all of us who are able to serve and in a position to do good are very proud of. And I want to thank our veteran secretary, John Santiago, who took the lead on that in terms of what

tool for civic engagement, uh, for history, for genealogy, and for connecting communities with place. Even visitors will certainly be able to experience this. And just in closing, our veteran service have really shaped not just our communities, but the character and strength of Massachusetts as a whole. We were the leaders 250 years ago in the founding of this country. We know what it means for

individual, ordinary people to step up and do more in this act of collective action um, that formed this country. It started right here in Massachusetts. So, we're honored to make sure we're not overlooking anybody with this new Veterans Legacy Trail. We're going to ensure that those stories are never forgotten, those sacrifices never overlooked, and that that legacy always exists here in Massachusetts. Um, this

project is about memory, but it's also about action, a reminder that collective action can really not only start a country, but fuel so much good. And none of this would be possible without our outstanding veteran secretary, Santi, John Santiago. That's Dr. Dr. John Santiago, who's found a way to serve not only in the army, but also in his community as a former state rep, serves

every single well, not every single day, but many days uh at at at the Boston Medical Center, seeing patients. We're so fortunate to have had John in this role. Um and look forward to all the things that he's going to do moving forward. But thank you, John, for being here. Let me call you up to say a few words.

Well, good day everyone. It's great to be here. I want to start off by just thanking you, mayor, for hosting us today. When we thought about where we were going to have this event, Fall River was number one. It was the only place we would ever have this place.

Given the rich history in this city by its people, by the people who've served, whether it's on battleship cove or the wall just yonder, it's so important to be here today with you celebrate this momentous day. I also want to thank the delegation, Senator Rodrig, Rep. Fiola, Repullette. This is one of the strongest delegations in the entire Comalth when it comes to veteran services. When I

need something, yeah, let's give him a round of applause.

when I need something, whether it's for a nonprofit, whether it's a policy agenda, whether it's a piece of legislation, this delegation led by Rodrigs and Fiolin will let come through day in and day out. And so I'm so incredibly grateful for you being here today, but for your commitment to veterans since I've been there, you know, whether it's passing the most comprehensive bill, as LG said, whether

it's investing in our veterans home, transforming those veterans homes, whether it's putting forward the largest targeted investment in veteran homelessness, this delegation has always stood up from the very beginning. So I'm grateful for your work and what you do.

You do also want to take a second to thank many of the people in the audience who are with us every single day advocating and supporting our veterans.

Many of you come from the veteran community member. Many of you are families from the veteran community. I see our gold star families here all the way from Lynn who came from all the way from Lynn to be here today. I see your VSOs Talo, Carol, Kevin. I see the VVA and Justin. Where's Justin at? Yeah, he brought in the back. He brought a bus of Vietnam veterans to come here and celebrate this momentous occasion. And

as the LG said, when we thought about the hero act, we thought about expanding benefits inclusivity but a big important part of it was about honoring and recognizing the veterans and their families for what they've done, right? It's not just about honoring their service, but it's about honoring their stories. So when this idea came up, the 250th anniversary to celebrate that, as the LG said so

eloquently, it's about honoring the fact that from the beginning of this Commonwealth of this country, that veterans and their sacrifice have been so important to this cause. And so when we begin to think about how we can honor that sacrifice, it became clear that cities and towns all across the Commonwealth were doing this in their own way.

from small statues to greens to important museum relics like this one.

We cataloged all of it, 1300 of them on this amazing website. And if you were to get on the website, you'd be able to read a little bit about what inspired that statue or that story. And today, we unfold that to you all today and to the rest of the Commonwealth to learn more so you can appreciate not just their service, but their story. So, I'm incredibly grateful to the many of you

who played a role in that and that today we get to really unleash this veterans legacy trail for not just us but for dedicate for future generations from here on out. So, I'm so thankful to be here with each and every one of you.

Now, I want to call on to the microphone my good friend, a big leader in this delegation who's been a part of this from day one, Senator Rodrig, your commitment to veterans. If I need anything, I call this person and he gets back to me immediately. He tells me day in out that listen, how can I support our veterans? And I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart, sir. So, can I

say share a couple words?

Thank you, uh, Mr. Secretary. It's great to see you. And of course, a lieutenant governor who has been here on professional levels, personal levels.

So, when you did you actually sleep the night? You did. Okay. Because I've had for like five minutes. I've had so many friends and colleagues who tell me, "Hey, I spent the night on the battleship with my my son, my daughter, my grandson, my granddaughter." I'm like, "Did you sleep?" They're like, "No, they didn't sleep." But um thank you uh for being here. And of course my partners in in the delegation,

Representative Fiola and Representative Wlette, because we all are very very proud of the fact that no state in the in the United States of America provides for its veterans like the Commonwealth of Massachusetts does. The fact that we have veteran service offices in all 351 communities. um the fact that we have a secretary of e of veterans affairs that actually sits at the cabinet level who

answers directly uh to the governor, our chief executive officer. We are very very proud of that. We're also very very happy that you chose Fall River to kick off this uh celebration of all the war monuments and memorials here on the fan tale of the battleship Massachusetts.

I'd like to call it the Statue of Liberty of Fall River. Everyone that comes into Fall River over the Braggger Bridge, who was the first person, Charles Bragg, the first person killed from Fall River in World War II, everyone that comes over on the Bragg Bridge sees this great monument. And right there is uh the Thomas Hudner um office. Tom Hudner was a Medal of Honor recipient during the Korean War. An

amazing story. Tom Hudner's story. They made made a recent movie about it. Just an amazing story. So, thank you all for being here. We really appreciate it.

Know that um we're going to continue to work with the administration, we as a delegation to uh always provide nothing but the best for our veterans, for the men and women who have served honorably uh this country and to give us the opportunity to do what we do every day.

So, thank you all for being here. Mr.

Secretary, you are the best. And it's true. So, I I always joke and I'll tell.

So, I'm up very early, right? Um, and I'm on my recliner, me me and my dog, you know, in my laptop, and I'm an impulse texter. So, 5:30 in the morning, I'll have an idea, a thought, and I'll text someone, right? And Secretary Santiago responds immediately. I'm like, "What the hell are you doing up at 5:30 in the morning?" But he is just an amazing human being. Thank you for your service, Madam Lieutenant Governor.

Always great to see you. and the mayor.

Thank you for supporting everything veteran here uh in the city of Fall River. Thank you all.

And now we are a an amazing team here in Fall River, our legislative delegation.

And leading the House side uh of the delegation is my good friend and partner, Representative Carol Fiola.

Thank you, Senator. I'll tell you why he's up in the morning. He has two babies at home. So, that's one of the reasons he answers those texts. And and there is a way to send later on the texts. I just finally learned that my poor staff would get them at 5:30 and six. Um, first of all, I want to welcome all the veterans and gold star family uh members and representatives here today.

Um, I'd like to really extend a warm thanks as everyone else has to our lieutenant governor who is just amazing at being responsive to us as a delegation collectively that represent other communities, but specifically Fall River. There's nothing about the needs that we have here that she does not and the governor understand. So, we appreciate that greatly. um to Secretary Santiago, former House Representative,

friend of ours and colleague to see you uh when you were a House member uh working late, working all day and night at the hospital, coming in to session, having a baby, being deployed. Uh you truly are remarkable human and we appreciate your public service uh to the veterans of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And of course to the mayor, thank you. There isn't anything you won't do for the veterans here in

Fall River. And it is a great team spirit. Um the 250th we're 250 years old and this is the part of the veterans uh piece that is being launched and to be launched here in Fall River is so fitting. uh and specifically of course here on the battleship that is a living breathing uh memorial to the soldiers uh who served in World War II, Pacific uh in particular uh but to all

our veterans because no community and I'll go on record does it more um intensely and uh to support the veterans than Fall River. If you just take a walk from here down the path right this way, head north, you will encounter a magnificent bsentennial park. Uh we're here 60 years where we're sitting here where a couple of community leaders said we can get this battleship to Fall River. And they collected pennies from

the students in Fall River and brought this iconic, as the senator says, Statue of Liberty to Fall River. And then 50 years ago, bicesentennial park just about 50 was launched in Fall River. And since that time, it has in evolved into a magnificent display of veteran memorials, culminating this past couple of years in the uh fundraising efforts right here in this community for about

$2 million public private contributions to an 80% scale Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. It is moving. It brings veterans and their family members and others here to learn about them. But in between, we have the Ewaima monument that is iconic on that park. We have the Korean War monument and we have the official Gold Star Families Memorial Monument among others. So I encourage you all to come here and spend an

afternoon and visit these incredible monuments. It is such an honor. Just look at the view here. Just look at this. You're never going to find a better sunset. You're never going to find a better spot to enjoy the view of city of Fall River. And we as a delegation, the governor, the secretary, the mayor, and with all of you will continue to fight every day for our veterans. So, I thank you very much. And

now, because we don't do it alone, I'd like to introduce my other colleague, Representative Steve Wlette.

Well, as a a rookie legislator, uh I also have to say I'm very proud of the delegation here today, Lieutenant Governor. We're going to miss uh Dr.

Santiago as he moves up. It's absolutely a delight to see everybody here. I appreciate again the VSOs being here, the Gold Star families, and uh again, my districts are very, very proud to be here. So, thank you very much for attending today. And I'm gonna pass it on to Corey Jaqu. Is it Corey Jaquai?

Thank you.

All right. Take care.

All right. Thank you all again for your remarks. Thank you all for being here today. And uh this does conclude the formal portion of our ceremony here, but I do want to give a special thank you to uh Battleship Cove staff, Audrey for helping us coordinate this event. We really appreciate it. and we're going to have uh refreshments and we'll have guided tours and some opportunity for

you folks to enjoy your visit here. So, thank you all so much and have a nice day.