Veteran's Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

MEETING, 2026. WE'RE GOING TO GO OVER THE FINAL STEPS AND PROCEDURES FOR THE MEMORIAL DAY PARADE AND TAKE INPUT ON ANY OTHER TOPICS THAT NEED TO BE ADDED TO THE AGENDA. SO I'M JUST GOING TO START OFF WITH WHAT I SAW FROM LAST YEAR'S MEMORIAL DAY PARADE AND HOW IT MIGHT FIT INTO THE ORDER OF PRESENTATIONS THIS YEAR. We'll move pieces up or down the list. All right, so I will open with remarks. I timed out my remarks to about a minute. The next presenter on last year's video was Walter Wehner doing the soldier's prayer. And then this year we have a wreath that we're going to lay. I'm going to pick it up Saturday. Okay. And so I'm just going to put a star next to that because I don't know if that's exactly where it should go. I confirmed with Representative Moradian that he is going to be there for the proclamation. The next placeholder is for Senator Moore. We can almost guarantee that he'll be in Millbury anyway, but I put the name in. And then Andy has confirmed that he will do a reading, which I'm going to give him from the package. And Ann Marie Foley has confirmed that she will attend and she'll do a reading, again, from the original package. Boy Scouts have confirmed participation. They have not given me a name of their Boy Scout who's going to read, despite my requests again today. And Ella McDonald is the name of the Girl Scout from Troop 65-431 who will do America's answer. Walter will again read the honor roll. And then that's when we will transition into the military protocol for firing squad and raising of the flag. taps if a bugler is available. I still don't have any confirmation on that. I'm just hoping and praying someone shows up.

Bob, do you have a confirmation band is going to play national anthem this year?

No confirmation on a band either. And then I believe Carmen will come up to the mic and invite the citizens of Grafton to the Legion for refreshments.

Can we get electronic WE DON'T HAVE A BAND.

WELL, I MEAN, WE HAVEN'T DONE IT. I THINK WE HAVE DONE IT IN THE PAST. BUT IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THE HIGH SCHOOL BAND. BUT IT'S NOT A BAD IDEA TO HAVE IT ON STAND BY.

THEY DID IT LAST YEAR, COMMENT, I THINK, AT YOUR POST AFTER THE LEARNING. THEY DID. THEY DID. THEY CAME DOWN THE POST AFTER. THEY CAME DOWN THE POST AND DID IT. THEY DIDN'T DO IT DURING THE COMMENT. SO I THINK IT'S PROBABLY APPROPRIATE THAT WE DO IT

NO, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE. IT WAS AN OVERSIGHT LAST YEAR. THEY DIDN'T DO IT. BUT THEN THEY CAME DOWN THE POSTS AND DID IT. EXACTLY. BUT THE YEAR BEFORE THEY DID IT. THAT'S RIGHT. BOTH WOULD BE EASY TO FIND. BUT IF WE COULD GET THEM TO DO IT, I'D LIKE THAT BECAUSE THE PARENTS CAN'T SEE THAT.

Any issues or problems with the way the order is set up?

So the wreath laying, my thought is that that usually should go down around maybe the honor roll, firing squad, whenever you put down the wreaths.

Yeah, that's when that goes. So when that comes, when the... When I call the sergeant at arms up, and he'll call the troops to attention and everything like that, they'll shoot the weapons, and then they'll play taps, and while they're playing taps, they lay the wreaths. Okay, got it.

So we're going to move the laying of the wreath down to here, just after taps. Okay, good.

before the honor roll do we want to say why we are laying the big wreath or do we care we kind of talked about that signifies you know we haven't chosen anybody you're just laying the wreath for memorial day in front of one of the markers this is in front of the crowd because the crowd never

We can build that in. Just give me an idea what you want to say.

What's that one?

If we wanted to explain why we are laying the big wreath.

Oh, that's something you're doing special this year, right?

Yeah, just to signify that all the veterans, you know, here's the big wreath. Like if you couldn't attend everywhere else, you can see it.

Right in front? Yeah. Okay, it's got a stand for it and everything. Just hang it there. So kind of like what they do with the Unknown Soldiers. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, in the roadway or are we closer to the archway? Closer to the archway.

It's going to move. It won't stay there forever.

LINE UP ON THE STREET THE SAME WAY WE DID LAST YEAR AND EVERYTHING. SO THE POLICE WILL NEED TO GET AHEAD OF THAT TO MAKE SURE THERE'S NO CARS PARKED THERE.

WHICH THIS MORNING THE DOORBELL RANG AND IT WAS ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF THE DPW ASKING ME FOR THE LIST SO HE QUICKLY RAN NEXT DOOR TO THE POLICE STATION AND CAME BACK WITH A COPY IN HIS HAND AND ONE FOR ME. SO THEY WERE ON IT. BECAUSE THE RESIDENTS PARKED THERE.

I DON'T THINK THEY MIGHT BE TOLD THEY CAN'T FOR THAT PARTICULAR DAY, BUT WE HAVE HAD CARS THERE BEFORE OCCASIONALLY. DO YOU WANT TO DO THAT SUNDAY?

I SAW IT ON FACEBOOK.

YEAH, I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY THAT.

IT WAS ON FACEBOOK. PARKING STARTED THE NIGHT BEFORE. I THINK COLLEEN SHARED IT TOO.

That takes care of the day of. I sent out invitations to, actual invitations to all of the members of the select board, all of the department heads in the municipal center, David Morady and Senator Moore, and probably somebody who I'm forgetting to say, but it was a faces this year, I don't know. And then I guess we're going to talk about flag placement, right, Saturday?

Flag placement, we're doing that Saturday. Andy is informing me that St. Philip's and Fairview are all done already. So we got Pine Grove, we got the State Hospital, and speaking of Bill was down there and took care of the lawn again this year, so that whole Shrewsbury, Westboro thing apparently didn't work. So anyways, we'll do that.

The last cemetery, the old cemetery, the one that's across the street here, and Cole Anderson from Troop 106, because he worked on THE FLAGS THERE. HE'S DONE IT SINCE HE'S DONE THE ZEGAL PROJECT. HE'S TAKEN OWNERSHIP OF THE PROJECT EVERY MEMORIAL DAY SINCE. I EXPECT HIM TO DO THE SAME GOING FORWARD FOR A WHILE. WHERE IS THAT?

THAT'S GREAT, BECAUSE I HATE WALKING UP THERE.

I FOUND TWO MORE REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS THIS MONTH. THEY WILL BE HONORED FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THEY

Bygrove and Riverside. All right. So that's in the police department. The chief got back to me and said that he's going to send his people again like they did last year. So we'll make quick work in the cemeteries on Saturday. Okay.

Bob, logistically at the common in past years, last couple years, that were available. We have some veterans that can't stand. We'll see what I can come up with. Okay. All right. All right.

Where about the bus? All set?

Excuse me? The bus? The bus is all set. Bob took care of the bus, and they'll be picking us up at 7 o'clock. People are having all kinds of things happen to them. I do not have a cadence caller for the marches this year. Danny recently just got sick. He's gonna do the ceremonies at the center and at the cemeteries, but he can't march. And Dale? And Dale is also sick. So I'm going to try to arrange it with the school band to make sure that we might have to rearrange the parade a little bit so that the marching troops can hear the drum beat a little bit. I don't want to put the band too far back that someone can't keep a step beat going for us to keep going because Danny isn't going to be there to get everybody back in step again. So I don't want to look like a bunch of jumping people going down the street. So I'll talk to the school band. What's the band leader's name there anyways? Houghton? Trombley. Trombley, right? Steve, I think. Yeah, Steve Trombley, that's what it is. And to see if we can get a constant drum beat so we can stay in step.

Excuse me, did you say you did talk to him or are you going to?

No, I'll talk to him.

Because I had messaged him a couple different times about the Buglers, but I haven't gotten a reply yet.

I mean, I'm sure we could do that the day of. I can go and say, hey, I need your drummer to keep a beat while we're going down the street.

I'm starting to think that he might not recognize Sean's name, but he would definitely recognize your name. I'll call him. So, yeah, I think it probably would.

Do you have a phone number, Sean, for him, Trombley? No, I don't, other than just the school.

It's got to be in the school. So I've got the stands for the speakers and the PA system. My question was, who set that up every year? So when you guys come up and the microphone is set up, who? Well, we did. You did, okay. Yeah, we did.

This one doesn't need, if we're using the town speaker system, it doesn't need it. Oh, no, it does. Never mind. Sorry. So I'll deliver it early the day of.

Okay. And then whoever's going to set it up can set it up. I mean, I can help them. Well, I can have Sean do that.

He does that. So we don't need to supply anything. You've got everything we need. You just need someone to set it up.

Yeah, we'll be there in the morning.

I mean, it takes two minutes to run down the hill if we absolutely needed something. I just wanted to make sure that if you're showing up with mics, then we're pretty much good to go. Because we don't need mics. You're going to have everything, right? That's what I'm asking you. Do you need me to bring microphones, or do you have microphones?

Are you bringing them?

Do you have them? No, we have a wireless mic. Okay. But I don't know if it's going to be compatible with what you're bringing. Okay, why don't you bring it, and I'll bring the hardwired ones, and we've got it covered A and B. Okay.

And we'll need your Honda generator. Generator, yeah.

Well, who's going to, Carmen, you're going to be with us all morning. Yeah, I know. So who's going to be setting this thing up?

Well, I'll just. Sean or not.

Yeah, yeah. I can set it up. I set it up every year for the 4th of July break. Okay.

I can have the stuff all set for you. and the generator. And Dale can probably help me. He usually did that. I don't believe he's going to be marching, so I don't think he'll be with me on the details in the morning. So he'll probably be available.

I'll check with him also. If you want to meet up beforehand so you don't have to worry about it Monday morning, we can meet up beforehand and I can grab this stuff for you.

Okay, so I went to talk to Amber. She's Evan's secretary. It has to go in front of the Board of Selectmen's meeting to get permission to fly the flag on that ceremonial flag in place of the Town flag? Town flag?

Not the big flag. Big flag is American flag.

The little one to the right is what we do all the time. Yeah, that's a town flag.

Town flag.

There's no one's got a permit to use it. American flag is coming off Friday night. There'll be no flag on it Monday morning, and I can't fly the Gold Star Mother flag on it Monday morning because it's got to have a permit, and Evan won't override the permit. So I can't fly it. GOING FORWARD. IT'S ADDED TO THE LIST OF THINGS. IT'S ADDED TO THE LIST OF THINGS WE'VE GOT TO DO. I DON'T KNOW WHEN THE PERMIT FOR THAT CAME UP. Never heard of it.

I never had a door before. We did the whole ceremony.

I did it two years ago.

What happens if we just do it? What's the worst that happens?

Don't take it down.

Who will? We've got to edit that.

Don't take it down anyway. You wouldn't want to leave it there. Yeah.

Put it up for the ceremony and at the end you take it down. When we fly a POW flag below the United States flag, I don't think we get a permit for that. No. So I can't wait for it. This is a separate poll. There's no flag on it that we can't use. Okay, so it's a separate poll. That's no sense. Maybe that's got something to do with it.

And I said I wouldn't do that, but I did it anyway, so shut me up.

I'm just

SO LET ME GET BACK ON TRACK FOR A MINUTE. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT WE HAVE OVERLOOKED, ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF THAT WE HAVEN'T TALKED ABOUT?

Okay, we haven't talked about the military vehicles, and Jerry's all on board with that, so those, at least two vehicles will be there.

I talked to my neighbor, and his truck is having its transmission replaced, so he won't be available. Okay, so we'll have whatever he has.

I got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... And if there's anybody else, we'll put them in the trucks.

Who do you have for names?

For names? Yeah. Okay, we got Stanley Stapiro.

Yeah, yeah.

Dale Kent. Yeah. Bobby Prout. Yeah. Steve Gosling. Yeah. Danny Dyette. Okay. Tony Borelli. Yeah. Peter Alishoyan. Okay. John Simpson. John Simpson. He usually insists on marching all the time.

He ain't this year. He told me. I went to see him.

Okay. That's good to know because I had him on here as him and Bobby Pro raising the flag. They still want to do that? Yeah, yeah.

They still want to do that. Okay. Whether they're going to do Reese or not, I don't know yet. Some of the places are hard to get to.

John Simpson in a vehicle. Yeah. And as far as wreath layers go, I've already talked to the woman's auxiliary.

Yeah, we had Taryn last year.

We had Taryn and my daughter, Joanne. is going to come on the detail with us and be a wreath bearer also. So that gives you how many?

I need seven at some locations and eight at others. So far, I've got Bernie. I don't have any more daughters. Yeah. I have Bernie. Can you work on that? I have Sean. I have myself. And I have Ron Kolowskis, Ronnie. OK? That's four.

Okay, then you've got Taryn. Yeah. You've got Peter. Right. And you've got my daughter, Joanne.

Yeah, but I've got to be careful now because if Mr. Pratt wants to do it and John Simpson wants to do it, they've been doing it for years and I just can't push them out of the way.

My daughter will gladly get out of the way. Okay, okay. I mean, I told Taryn last year. She'll gladly get out of the way. Yeah, okay. If they decide they want to do that.

Great.

All right, so you've basically got that covered.

Yeah, how many shooters you got?

Last I knew, I got six. You sure? I'm not sure. I never worry about that because if you have less shooters, you shoot them more times. That's all. Nobody's counting the shots, I don't think, so half the time, a few of the guns don't go off any less. OK, so we got to make sure we get some of these people in vehicles.

Besides me? Yeah. I'll be there.

I'll be marching.

There's always a bunch of guys.

We invite anyone from outside that wants to come in and march. There's always people that show up to march that aren't part of the Legion or part of the VFW. We've got a few guys from the VFW, but the VFW is in the same boat that the American Legion is. Yeah, yeah. March anymore, you know, or they're sick or whatever. I mean, it is what it is. But we'll make it all work. You have to.

You anticipate that the day is going to come where Memorial Day is going to be just like Veterans Day.

It's going to be... Jesus, I hope not.

No, I know. Nobody wants it that way. You'll meet somewhere at the Grafton Center or something and do the ceremony and call it out of the woodwork and say, hey, listen, we want to be part of this. I have over 100 members at the American Legion. I sent out at least 80 emails of people I had email addresses to requesting their presence My regular e-board showed up, as they always do, Jeff and Craig and the other guys, but all invited guests that got emails, no one. So I don't know what that's about, but I can't

something in writing the schedule for what we do at 7 o'clock tomorrow? Yes, I do.

That's out on Facebook. Bob took care of that. And all the departments at the town hall have it posted on their window. And I have copies

So for next year, unfortunately, I wasn't able to make all of this happen. I have the AI poster that I sent out. It's too late to have like no one could run it in time. But I have it created so next year we'll be able to start working with the news agencies and get it ran earlier. And then the Memorial Day signs, sunshine signs got slammed, but they just finished them.

Oh, good.

So I'm going to go pick them up. I was going to try to pick them up today. It didn't work out with my schedule. I'm going to try to pick them up tomorrow.

Do you need me to pick them up? I'm working from home, so I can go get them.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that works. Okay. Bree set them up front for me. And then she had steaks as well. Just walk in and pick them up. But they weren't the four by sixes because of the way that they were going to get posted out. But they were really big. And I think there were six of them, four of them, something along those lines. So we'll have those for next year. We can definitely put those up earlier. And we can start driving more advertisement around town.

BOB, DID I GIVE YOU A COPY OF THE HONOR RULE? YEAH, I BELIEVE YOU DID. FOR SOME REASON, THE ONE I HAVE, I FEEL LIKE I'M MISSING SOMEBODY ON IT, BECAUSE SOMEBODY KNEW WE HAD IT.

I GAVE YOU A WHOLE EXACT STORY.

YEAH, I KNOW, BUT I'VE BEEN GIVING THEM OUT HERE.

YEAH, THE COPY YOU GAVE ME IS DATED 5-18-25. OKAY.

There's somebody missing.

Do you want to review the list one by one? Yeah, it'd be easier. All right, so World War I veterans, Alexander J. Bernard, Alfred J. Chapdelaine, Franklin S. Clark, William Delisle, Alfred Demers, George Gelinau, Carl Harris, Lewis Hitchings, William Lamore, George Mann, Joseph Sampson, Earl Stowell, Frank Sweeney, Albert Usher. We good? Yep. World War II, Alfred Fousquet, Herbert Boynes, Raymond DeSorci, William Dolis, Francis Donahue, Charles Gooch, Joseph Goulet, Leonard Howard, George Jordan, Boleslaw Corona, Emmett Lutie, Donald Lundgren, Ernest Melanson, Joseph Obera, Armand Roulette, Ralph Parmenter, William Schofield, Gordon Scobie, Robert Tompkins, Mitchell Wentz, that takes care of World War II. And then Korea's Victor Galilani. OK. So I didn't date this one.

That's why I didn't know if it was an old one or not. So that's the one. No. That's the one I have.

They just overlaid the papers and looked up. Could have stopped us. Sure.

What else you got? I got, I had a request, so there's a little addition to the parade this year, too. Do you people know Gordon Rowe? Okay, well, he's a longtime member of Post 92, but anyways, he's also the chaplain of the Christian Riders. And when we have a Blessing of the Bikes at the Legion, he's the guy that does the Blessing of the Bikes. So he sent me an email and he asked, he hasn't ever participated in the Memorial Day Parade because he really can't walk that good. That would be great. So then, at that point, because I lost my chaplain also, I went, oh, hey, Gordon, would you mind being the chaplain and say the prayers at the cemetery? So he says, okay, great. So he's going to do that also. So he'll be coming on to detail with us in a moment, and I'll put him probably right after the dignitaries, after the military dignitaries, And he might have one other guy with him. So Gordon Rowe will be doing the prayer at each of the cemeteries this year. So that worked out pretty good for us. And I think that's all I got.

Did Gordon say he was going to ride the bus or ride his bike to the center? He's going to ride the bike.

I'm not going to make him get in and out of the bus. So I'll let him be part of the detail. We'll have that police escort, then there'll be Knight's Limousine, and then probably Gordon can either follow the police on their motorcycles, and will get lost when you say the bus you mean the night yeah the night's bus yeah are you gonna have to do the prayer from this motorcycle because that would be cool oh well he'll he'll leave the drive right up there yeah exactly he has a hard time so it's getting around but uh And Walter, who was a chaplain, is just doing the center now. He's not coming on the details with us anymore. So he was the guy that did it prior.

If Sean is unable to secure benches for those who need to sit, how many seats do you think we need?

You know what? We put the benches out there the past two years. Yeah. I didn't see anybody. Not many people sat in them. We could be easy enough to put six folding chairs. I was just going to say, if you need a half a dozen folding chairs, we can get those.

We had talked about that a little bit. That's probably a better idea. Put a stack of chairs there. If we put them up the night before and we just throw a little lock on them or something like that so they don't walk away.

I'll talk to Pat tomorrow and see if he can deliver half a dozen down here. Yeah, because that would be.

Those were nice, but nobody used them. Do you need to set them up, or can you just put them on the bus?

I would set them up because as people that are not going to march, myself included, I know two that will use them right away is Judge Nadel, 1497, and myself. If we can't march, we'll probably be sitting there waiting for the parade.

Yeah, but we can put signs on them if that's what it's all about.

THE CHAIRS WOULD BE RIGHT THERE. I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND WHY WE WOULD SET THEM UP THE NIGHT BEFORE. THAT'S WHAT I WAS TRYING TO DO.

THERE'S PLENTY OF TIME TO DO THAT. to where the parade starts. Probably, I think it's 10.30. 10.30, yeah. I didn't see it listed.

I don't know if we put that out there or not.

There's nothing on here coming. Yeah, there's nothing on that. But if people expect

All marching in the parade can park now. Hold on. Buses will leave at 1030. TO THE TOP OF THE VETERAN'S PAGE.

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT. YOU'RE RIGHT.

BOB, HAVE YOU GOT BUSES FOR THE BAND? I'M SORRY? HAVE YOU GOT BUSES FOR THE BAND?

WE ALREADY SAID, RIGHT? YEAH, BUSES. THAT'S ALL SECURE.

HAVE YOU TALKED TO THEM RECENTLY?

I HAVEN'T TALKED TO THEM. THEY JUST SHOW UP. IF YOU BOOK THEM, THEY'LL BE HERE.

ALL RIGHT.

Anything else?

Anybody? I got one thing that has something to do with veterans, but it doesn't have to do with the Memorial Day Parade. I have a friend that wants to donate six tickets to the Wu Sox game this Sunday to a veteran and a family or something. Anybody?

That's almost six. Consolation.

There you go. The grand prize winner.

Her name is Sharon Wall. Thank you. And there's some more information in there about those tickets. And I'll tell you that I've been where you're going to be seating there. So it's at the top on the concourse. And there's tables set up for you and everything that you can sit.

ALL RIGHT. IF I DON'T HEAR ANYTHING ELSE, I'LL TAKE A MOTION TO ADJOURN.

MOTION ADJOURNED.

I HAVE A SECOND. OKAY. WE'RE ALL IN THE ROOM, SO ALL IN FAVOR? AYE. OKAY. MEETING IS ADJOURNED.