A Global War on Terrorism wreath laying ceremony was held on May 30, 2022, in Fall River, Massachusetts, to honor four local fallen soldiers: Specialist Scott Andrews, Michael Bouteau, Robert "Rob" Barrett, and Eric Iman. The ceremony took place at a living memorial on Snake Hill, which was initiated by Marianne Waddell and the tree planting committee. Joanne, mother of Specialist Scott Andrews, hosted the event, welcoming attendees and introducing other Gold Star mothers, Larry and Subuto (mother of Michael Bouteau), and Colleen Barrett and Sue Galloway (mothers of Robert Barrett). The ceremony included a presentation of colors, the singing of the National Anthem, an invocation and benediction by Father J. Matick, and remarks from several local officials. Mayor Paul Coogan, Veteran Service Officer Mikaela Bruno, State Representative Carol Fiola, and City Councilor Linda Pereira all spoke, emphasizing the profound sacrifice made by the soldiers and the importance of remembering their legacy and supporting Gold Star families. Representative Fiola also highlighted the alarming rate of veteran suicide and the ongoing efforts for a Global War on Terrorism monument in Washington. The event concluded with a wreath presentation by a Gold Star family, the singing of "God Bless America," and a symbolic release of doves.
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Council
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good morning everyone i'd like everyone to feel very welcome at being here i am very pleased to see so many new faces with us today i am the mother of specialist scott andrews who was killed in 2010 with me we have michael sorry larry and subuto who is the mother of michael bouteau who was killed in 2006 and colleen barrett and her mother sue galloway is here with us today and robert was also killed in 2010.
0:46today we're here to remember these boys are city of fall river boys who now have a memorial place on snake hill i wasn't sure at first that i really liked the idea of snake kill but now it seems to be music to warriors to hear that our boys have a place where people can come and remember every year on memorial day and this is a place of peacefulness a place of beauty
1:21a living memorial who was brought to us by marianne waddell who was part of the tree planting committee she was a retired nurse always in the job of healing and even after she retired she still stood as an instrument of healing because this place brings us healing and comfort just knowing that long after we're gone our sons will still be remembered here in this place on memorial day so i'd like to
2:04thank you all for coming and introduce you i'm sorry i need to have the presentation of colors
2:32to the flag of the united states of america
2:49our person that was supposed to sing the national anthem with us today got caught up in another ceremony at dayton so will you all join me in singing the national anthem
3:29he was is
3:51oh foreign i would like to invite at this time father j matic for the invocation
4:36good morning everybody it's an honor to be here with all of you today as we remember the four young men from our city who paid the ultimate uh sacrifice for our freedoms that we enjoy and how blessed as joanne said we are to be in this beautiful spot and to know that we can always come here to be thankful and to remember and to cherish all the more the gifts and blessings we have because of the
5:05willingness of young men like the fall we honor today to serve us and pay the ultimate price let us pray almighty god we begin our gathering by giving you thanks and praise for all your gifts and blessings on this memorial day morning we thank you especially for the gifts of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness we cherish them and thank you for them on memorial day we remember with great
5:36gratitude the men and women who have fought our country's battles throughout the years to ensure the people of this land could live in the way that you have designed we devote this day to specifically remembering the men and women who have paid the ultimate price to guarantee we who are left behind might live with those gifts mentioned above this morning we gather at this memorial
6:03for four local young men who paid that price so that we might be here this day and every day of our lives to honor them by living our lives according to your will as we remember michael robert scott and eric this day along with all others who have made the ultimate sacrifice in order that we might live in true freedom we ask you to give them the peace for which they fought and died
6:33and to hold them in the palm of your hands until that day when through your mercy we will hopefully be reunited with them in your presence in the heavenly kingdom throughout this land and beyond this day we remember all who fought and died for the freedoms we cherish as we honor them and thank them we also pray for their families and friends who mourn their deaths every single day of their lives
7:02may we all have the strength to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to you and thus do our part to honor them and their sacrifice in order that they may not have died in vain amen
7:23thank you father jay i would like now like to call the honorable mayor paul coogan
7:38and of course i'm going to be brief as always i do believe that snake hill is a fitting tribute to these four families to recognize the sacrifice they made for our freedom and for our country they signed up and gave all they could to make the united states of america a better place to live a safer place to live and a place where we can celebrate on a beautiful day like this
8:02their legacy so i want to thank joanne colleen and all the families who did this for the united states of america and who did this obviously for us thank you thank you i would like to next call the veteran service officer of fall river mikhaila bruno
8:32good morning first of all i'd like to say thank you for everyone to be here today in honoring and remembering those who've lost their lives and sacrifice of our country i know that joanne had already acknowledged several gold star families but may have the rest of the gold star families please stand to be recognized thank you this is a very sacred time and we must always remember those who came and went before us
9:10but to our gold star families every day is memorial day and we need to acknowledge and support them the best way that we can as we're here today honoring our forward falling know that at any point in time you can always come up here and pay your respects to them and for that i say thank you to everybody who's been involved
9:38thank you michaela next i would like to call state representative carol fayola thank you joanne what a gorgeous day to be here to reflect and to remember um i would like to pretty much uh place my remarks not only to the veterans here today but to especially the gold star families this is your day every day is your day to mourn and to reflect and to celebrate the lives of those lost but uh
10:08this is our way as a country as a community as a commonwealth to let you know that today we're with you and um interestingly this week we've had a lot of celebrations and uh there is no commonwealth no state nor community that celebrates our veterans more than the city of fall river in the commonwealth of massachusetts but on friday we launched the ceremonies and it was interesting we
10:34launched them for the civil war heroes and i think what's interesting is here we stand here today sadly with our most recent um members of this horrible uh club if you will and i i don't mean that disrespectfully but i don't know another word to say um and i think what's reassuring i hope to you families members is that we're still honoring the civil war heroes who paid the ultimate sacrifice
11:03and in 100 years from now we will still be honoring the memory the legacy and the life of your fallen heroes so i hope that gives you some form of the legacy will go on sadly on the other hand while we are the best state and the best community for helping veterans we do know that 17 veterans die a day from suicide we see it here in our community
11:31we see it in our commonwealth we see it in our country and i think the one thing that we can do as veterans as community members is to make sure we are keeping an eye out keeping making a call checking in on one another and um there's a lot more we do and can do to assist our veterans but i just find that such an astonishing number and i can tell you that i think it's
12:00all of our responsibility as we're here today to keep an eye on our living veterans who may need a helping hand i'd like to also acknowledge that robert's dear friends and current military members are here today and chatting with them earlier one of them locally was with robert on his final days and um i think it brings as much comfort for him to be here today as it does to
12:32everyone else and so um it's just hard for us to fathom that type of experience and so our thoughts are with you as well and we thank you for your active duty today um lastly uh i don't want to speak long i know the mayor beat me on the record but um i do want to tell you two things that the war on terrorism that's the the um war we're talking about today there will
12:56be a monument in washington things are moving they never move fast enough but it is moving forward and so one day not only here in fall river but the rest of the world will be able to um to know about the sacrifices your family members made and a friend of mine was just in hawaii and came back and she made a point just two days ago to show me something that really moved her it
13:19was a quote that eleanor roosevelt some of you may know this kept in her wallet until her dying day and it was reflective of world war ii and how she felt about it and i think it's their own their very brief words it's a very brief prayer but i think it's one that we can all take with us today as we leave and i'd like to read it to you as i close my remarks dear lord
13:43lest i continue my complacent way help me to remember that somewhere somehow out there a man died for me today as long as there be war then i must ask and answer am i worth dying for thank you all have a great day thank you carol fiola
14:21next we will have remarks from city councilor linda pereira gotta change the glasses sign of age good morning it is my honor to have been asked to speak here today as i was preparing my comments for this morning i thought about each one of you the mothers fathers brothers sisters grandparents of our brave soldiers who lost their life defending our freedom and i was overcome with the realization
15:04that each and every young life lost in service to our country represents such a tremendous ripple effect of impact upon those who are left behind we mourn our soldiers yes we miss them more than words can express but we also mourn the loss of knowing what would become of their lives their future children grandchildren i have come to this ceremony to honor the memory of our fallen four river sons who died for us
15:41army specialist scott andrews 21 years old when he died michael boothoff army private 19 years old when he died robert rob barrett 20 years old when he died let your mind settle on that for one minute 18 19 20. they had not yet really experienced life not really eric iman died at the age of 39.
16:19i think about the dreams these young men had the dreams their parents had their hopes their plans their goals the hopes plans and goals that their families had what would these men have done with their lives what would their career paths be would they marry would they have children that's something we'll never know instead we soothe our broken heart in the knowledge that they gave all they had to give
16:52and died as heroes this is the best we have to give our broken hearts to not wonder what might have been but instead to take comfort that they were true american heroes i cannot imagine what goes through the mind of a parent a grandparent sibling friends when you're informed of the death like this i don't know how one endorsed that and yet if it were not for the men and women of
17:27our armed forces who put their lives on the line for us we wouldn't be here today with the sun shining and the ability to live in a country that's free i can't think of words that would adequately console the families of our fallen heroes so inadequate though they are let me just say he who is remembered lives on so to andrew and rob michael and eric will always have a place in our hearts
18:03and their memory will never fade and when you think of each one of them and you tell a story about them whether that story makes you laugh or that story makes you cry the most important part of them is still with us their memory will always be alive so they will always live in our hearts thank you all for attending today it's very important to the families to know that we as a community support them
18:34god bless our city god bless and protect our military god bless the united states of america and god bless each and every one of you thank you so much
18:59thank you linda
19:14please raise the flag
19:32could we get a gold star family to come and present the wreath
19:44oh
20:05water
20:23thank you
20:36would you now join me in singing god bless america
20:55god the mountains through the oceans
21:25oh
21:33thank you you may be seated
21:42i just like to thank everyone once again um starting with the gold star families the hundred and first from robert's unit that are here our elected officials carol viola linda pereira city councilor andrew raposa and of course mayor paul coogan sorry didn't need to put you last and i'd also like to thank father jay for being with us here today to do the blessing and the invocation and all of you for participating
22:19all the veterans and all our families and friends we thank you and we hope to see you again next year if there's one thing that i could say about robert and michael and scott eric and i didn't know very well but i knew the other three through their mothers and i know one thing that they had in common was humility and i know if they had anything to say today it would be remember me thank you
23:06okay i would like to invite father jay back for the benediction
23:19let us pray almighty god all that we have done here this morning has been prayer because prayer is basically your communication with us and ours back to you in all that we have mentioned this morning especially the heroism the valor the love that the young men from our city showed and paying the ultimate price for their lives we commend those actions those actions of love and humility we commend them to your love as
23:57we commend them to your love your peace and your presence as we mentioned at the beginning we pray that you will hold them in the palm of your hands give them the great gifts that they fought for here in this world and help all of us to be strengthened by knowing someday through your love and mercy we will be reunited with them in the place that you are prepared for all who seek to serve you
24:25may those we honor here and those who are honored throughout the world this day who have sacrificed their lives for our country may they all receive strength and the peace that you wish to give to the world as they come before you with their deeds and their accomplishments done out of love for each and every one of us hold them father please in the palm of your hand amen
25:01and i'd also like to thank the police honor god for being with us today
25:29we will now have release of the dogs and i will give the mic to yeah
25:40thank you very much the folk war veterans council released these doves of love and peace in memory of couldn't put it better than joanne paul of a voice when it does fly please send a message with them a personal message and a prayer for these four men you may really shoot them
26:13uh
27:29perfect
27:47hello
28:27go thank you so much this concludes our ceremony today thank you