Greater Newburyport residents come together on Veterans Day

The phrase “freedom is not free” reverberated several times at Amesbury Middle School as more than 100 people gathered outside the Main Street school Monday morning for the city’s annual Veterans Day ceremony.

The phrase was spoken repeatedly by guest speaker and Iraq War veteran John Clifford of Newburyport. Clifford joined the Marine Corps in 2000 and fought for his country in Fallujah, Iraq. It was at Fallujah that he was wounded while riding in a Humvee and later awarded the Purple Heart.

Clifford spoke about how he joined the Marines as a cocky young man, only for his mindset to change very quickly.

“Boot camp kicked the crap out of me,” he said.

He went on to say that after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, “things got serious for the first time” and in December 2005, he was ordered to deploy.

“Deploying, fighting and hurrying up to wait,” Clifford said.

Four months later, he was in the explosive Iraqi city of Fallujah, where he took part in more than 150 combat operations.

Earlier in the brief ceremony, next to the city’s Doughboy World War I Memorial statue, state Rep. James Kelcourse, R-Amesbury, spent a moment reminding residents to pay their respects to veterans by thanking them for their service and protecting the freedoms citizens enjoy.

“It’s important that we think about that,” Kelcourse said.

Also, former Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2016 Commander Bob Smith presented Amesbury police Sgt. Richard Poulin with a plaque honoring the longtime police officer’s commitment to the city’s veterans.

“He has been with us all the way,” Smith said of Poulin.

Amesbury Mayor Ken Gray was unable to attend due to illness. But after she was spotted in the crowd and asked to speak, Mayor-elect Kassandra Gove took the microphone and echoed Kelcourse’s plea for veterans to be thanked and remembered.

In Newburyport, local veterans and their families, along with local police and Fire Department honor guards, marched down Green Street on Monday morning in the city’s annual parade. They paused at Brown Square in front of City Hall, where a group of about 200 people gathered under overcast skies, for a brief ceremony hosted by Regional Veterans Services Director Kevin Hunt.

During the ceremony, Mayor Donna Holaday read the names of two dozen local veterans who died between Memorial Day and Veterans Day of this year. A bell chimed in each person’s memory.

During his speech, Hunt discussed the importance of thanking veterans for their service, and emphasized the bravery and selflessness that is part of their decision to defend their fellow Americans.

“There’s a select group of people in this country who at one point raised their right hand, and they swore that they would give their lives to protect the lives of their fellow countrymen,” Hunt said. “Veterans do that. Also, police and firefighters do that.”

Holaday and Hunt were joined on the steps of City Hall by local officials, Kelcourse and state Sen. Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen, who emphasized the importance of recognizing the efforts of those who have served in the U.S. military. She challenged the crowd to thank local veterans in person this week, along with giving them a handshake or hug.

“I don’t think there’s much that can compare to that, and I really think we should preserve that moving forward in our community,” DiZoglio said.

She then turned her attention to a local Cub Scouts pack, and led the Scouts in each picking out a veteran in the crowd, making eye contact, and together exclaiming, “Thank you for your service.”

Kelcourse also urged people to recall the sacrifices made by U.S. veterans for their freedom, echoing his earlier remarks in Amesbury.

Hunt highlighted how restoration of Newburyport’s veterans memorials — including a pair of newly restored tablets on the front of City Hall — are funded through the city’s brick donation program. He encouraged residents to take part in the program, which allows participants to commemorate a deceased veteran or group of veterans by purchasing a brick that will be inscribed with their names and laid at Veterans Park in Brown Square.

The group later marched to the veterans cemetery on Pond Street where Hunt directed a wreath-laying ceremony.

And in Salisbury, a Newburyport man who walked across the country to raise awareness for veterans issues made his way across the Merrimack River on Monday to take part in the town’s Veterans Day observance.

Air Force veteran William Shuttleworth walked out of his front door in Newburyport on May 15 and walked 3,300 miles to San Diego, arriving Sept. 1.

“When you turn the news on tonight and watch television, you think the world is coming apart, don’t you?” Shuttleworth said. “Sometimes, it is so scary that you want to crawl under the bed and stay there.

“But you put a pair of shoes on, I wore five out walking across the country, and you meet the kindest and most generous and most thoughtful people who would give their shirt off their back for everybody,” he added. “America the beautiful starts with its people and I found, firsthand, how great they are.”

Shuttleworth was a surprise speaker Monday and went on to tell the assembled crowd of roughly 75 people, including local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops that, although Veterans Day is important, the day after is equally so.

“We wave the flag and we do a lot of things on these days, but don’t forget that veterans exist tomorrow and the next day and the day after and every other day of the year and acknowledge all that they do for us and all that we want to do,” he said.

Shuttleworth was joined at the podium by Hunt, Kelcourse, DiZoglio, Salisbury selectmen Chairman Freeman Condon, Town Manager Neil Harrington, and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Salem.

Moulton told the crowd that, during a time when Washington, D.C., is bitterly dived along party lines, he has been working on legislation with three of his fellow veterans, all of whom are Republican members of Congress.

“At a time when many Americans are losing faith in America, and are wondering what is going on in Washington, know that some veterans are holding the line,” he said. “We believe in this country and you should, too. Because America, for centuries now, has stood as a beacon of freedom and hope, not just for us back home but for everybody, everywhere around the globe.”

Condon said he still holds a great reverence for Veterans Day.

“When I was a kid, this day was huge,” he said. “There were massive parades, all the stores were closed, nobody worked. Unfortunately, through the complexity of our lives and the movement of sand through the hourglass of time, the day has lost a bit of its meaning.

“We should never let that happen. As adults, it is our sacred duty, our moral obligation to remind our children and our children’s children that the freedoms and blessings that they sometimes take for granted did not come without a cost.”

The Newburyport veterans remembered on Monday were:

Robert “Bobby” Price (Marine Corps); Percy F. Purington Jr. (Army); James J. Sullivan (Army); James J. Sullivan (Marines); David B. Newbert (Army); John Dennis Borrelli (Navy); Richard “Dick” MacBurnie (Air Force); John H. Gavin (Air Force); Hugh F. Underhill (Army); Robert Martin Sprague (Army); Daniel A. Downer (Navy); Kenneth I. Wilbur (Army); Ronald P. Titus (Army); Stuart S. Corcoran (Navy); Michael J. O’Connell (Marines); Raymond C. Hughes (Navy); Frank F. Kane (Army); James Dane Chandler Jr. (Navy); Gerard C. Cody (Navy); Lloyd Daniels (Navy); Richard J. Sequin (Army); Richard K. Dylingowski (Air Force); Charles Russell (Air Force); Jeffrey Sarres (Army Air Corps.); D. Travis Friedrich (Army).