Memorial Day Greetings
admin | Monday, May 31st, 2010 | No Comments »Brothers,
I wish you all a happy memorial day. Please keep in your prayers all our military personnell who are still in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan and other parts of the world. Although it is a holiday for America and has recently been referred to as the beginning of summer, please reflect on what memorial day really means and thank God for our men and women in uniform who have protected us and have given the ultimate sacrifice.
Yesterday was a special day for me as I attended the dedication of a Viet Nam Memorial Wall in Wildwood NJ. Over 10,000 people attended this dedication with representatives from every branch of the military. This permanent wall is built to half scale of the Viet Nam Veterans Remembrance Wall in Washington DC and is the only permanent replica of that Wall although there is one somewhat similar in Florida.
About 2 years ago myself and some of our AOH brothers erected the Healing Wall, better known as the traveling wall, in Fox Park in Wildwood NJ and at that time over 15,000 people visited it in just over 4 days. One of the people responsible for bringing that wall to NJ was Greg Mazzotta who proclaimed that “we will have our own permanent wall in Wildwood some day”. Unfortunately Greg died a month after starting the fundraising but his lifelong friend, Vince De Prinzio, would not let his friend’s dream die and contacted many of the organizations in the Wildwoods who got behind the project including the AOH and the Carpenters Union and many others and all the money was privately raised. What a true memorial day for the people of New Jersey and especially for Tom Callahan who was there to see the wall in his own town. He lost one son in Viet Nam and another son died less than a year later from injuries received there. Just think of this father when you think of memorial day and as he said pray for all the troops and their families, living and deceased.
Seamus Boyle National President
Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, Inc
