To many, they may just be names carved in stone. But John P. Walsh received a poignant reminder just hours before his talk that the soldiers and sailors whose names are on the Gloucester Veterans’ Memorial Wall were much more than that.
Walsh, an attorney who also serves as a helicopter pilot with the Virginia Army National Guard, was attending church with his family at Union Baptist Church on Sunday morning when an older gentleman who spotted Walsh in his uniform struck up a conversation.
Walsh explained that he was going to speak that day at the Memorial Day service put on by the members of American Legion Post 75 when the man told him that he had lost a brother, Calvin Hogge, at Iwo Jima. The man then listed several more members of the church who died during World War II, including one that the man could only recall the last name.
"We can only do so much to keep the memory alive at the individual level," Walsh said.
In separate services in Gloucester and Ma...
To view the rest of this article, you must log in. If you do not have an account with us, please subscribe here.