Col. Taona Enriquez is near the end of her second year as commander of the 66th Air Base Wing at Hanscom Air Force Base. On Monday, during her Memorial Day remarks at Veterans Memorial Park, she addressed the future, specifically to the young people present.
“There are some pretty remarkable youth here,” Enriquez said. She specified cadets from the Bedford High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, as well as Scouts and BHS musicians.
“Your service is needed. Thank you for volunteering to be here today,” she said.
Enriquez paid tribute to three fallen defenders of the Hanscom community: Senior Airmen Kcey Ruiz and Nathan Sartain, who died in 2015, and Senior Airman Jason Khain Phan in 2020. They were “the embodiment of courage, honor, loyalty, and selflessness,” she said.
The other two speakers at Memorial Park were elected officials. Select Board Chair Shawn Hanegan contrasted the security of daily life with combat fighters who “live in constant fear in a distant land, surrounded by people trying to kill you.” He said the town is saluting “men and women who sacrificed their lives to a cause greater than themselves.”
State Rep. Kenneth Gordon spoke about legislation that the House of Representatives recently passed that expands services provided to veterans. The so-called Heroes Act broadens eligibility for benefits and expands medical, dental, and vision benefits beyond those provided at the federal level. Gordon also explained an amendment he authored that expands veterans’ pension options in civilian life.
Peter Ricci, new chair of the Patriotic Holiday Committee, served as master of ceremonies and recognized his predecessor, Paul Purchia, grand marshal of this year’s observance. He complimented Purchia, an Army veteran, as “a thread in the fabric of our town.”
There also was a brief ceremony honoring the eight residents who died in World War II, plus three BHS graduates killed in Vietnam and two in Iraq.
Until about 20 years ago, Bedford’s Memorial Day parade worked its way east from war memorial to war memorial, spanning about three hours, culminating with raising the flag at Shawsheen Cemetery to full staff at noon.
Now the 20-minute parade route is Mudge Way to Veterans Memorial Park with a brief stop at the Common. Still, vestiges of that tradition remain as Monday’s pre-parade ceremonies began at 8:30 a.m. at the Korea and Vietnam memorial outside of the American Legion post. Volleys by a rifle squad and “Taps” by BHS buglers Alex Mattson and Jack Vance concluded the program at each site.
The next stop was the Civil War monument at Shawsheen Cemetery where local historian Don Corey again was the speaker, mentioning the fate of all 16 residents who fought and died for the Union, in battle or from illness.
The town’s population in 1860 was 870, Corey said, and he found it “extraordinary” that 96 men served, most in their late teens or early 20s, but also a 57-year-old mariner.
At a brief ceremony at the Major Barry Seidman Memorial Bridge that spans the Shawsheen River on The Great Road, William Linnehan, Bedford’s veterans’ agent, tossed a symbolic bouquet into the waters to honor fallen naval veterans.
The subsequent ceremonies at the Old Burying Ground on Springs Road were, as usual, a tag-team presentation. Alethea Yates, representing the Bedford Historical Society, spoke of the veterans buried there who fought in pre-Revolution wars, not only the French and Indian War, but also lesser-known events such as King Philip’s War (1675-1676), King William’s War (1688-1697), and Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713).
“By the time the Revolution broke out, many Bedford men knew what they were getting into,” she said.
Terrence Parker then recounted the colonial military service of three enslaved residents, Caesar Jones, Cambridge Moore, and Casar Prescott, all of whom continued as paid soldiers after they were liberated under the 1780 state constitution. Parker said he was perpetuating a Memorial Day teaching that started more than 50 years ago by the former organization Concerned Black Citizens of Bedford.
After Chuck Hacala recited the names of the colonial-era Minutemen buried there, the company’s musical unit played “Amazing Grace,” with Shirley Kring on the fife. Following the formal program, the Minutemen gathered around the grave of their predecessor, Capt. Jonathan Willson, who was mortally wounded on April 19, 1775 as colonists engaged with British forces retreating east of Meriam’s Corner in Concord.
Enriquez and Chief Master Sgt. Alan Weary, the Air Base Group’s command chief, spent some time examining some of the ancient headstones.
Yates returned for her familiar role as the speaker before the boulder on the Common, a memorial to the town’s World War I veterans. And there were a lot of them, Yates said – 71 out of a population of about 1,400. On the home front, townspeople made “a tremendous effort to support” those troops, she said.
Just before the parade, the Junior ROTC led a tribute to four BHS graduates killed in military action after World War II: Lt. Terry Reed ’63 and Lt. Robson Wills ’64, both from Hanscom families, and Pfc. John Hart ’02 and Lance Cpl. Travis Desiato ’03.
Student speakers were Verna Bowlan, Mary Bujalski, Matthew Dillon, and November Sandler. Also involved with the presentation were Asalie Brosgol, Emily McDonald, Caden Shimko, and Ariane Sweetland.
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