Marion celebrated Veterans Day 2025 in high style despite frigid conditions. At Old Landing Veterans Park, Front Street, with snowflakes starting to fall, Town Administrator and retired Navy Commander Geoffrey Gorman introduced an invocation from Rev. Eric Osterday of the First Congregational Church of Marion, then the “Pledge of Allegiance” led by Marion Girl Scouts, then the “National Anthem” performed by the Sippican School Band led by Music Teacher Hannah Moore.
The snowflakes had stopped by the time Select Board Chair Randy Parker introduced Planning Board member, former Select Board member and retired Army Colonel Jon Henry, whose words as guest speaker marked a highlight of the ceremony.
Henry, whose time in the army featured tours in Germany, Korea, and Vietnam in the Engineering Battalion, pointed to the recent experience that revealed the appreciative attitude Americans have toward veterans today. He said he took an Honor Flight, which flies veterans to Washington, D.C. at no cost to visit their respective service memorials, with 135 fellow veterans including a Rhode Island veteran who was 106 years old.
Early in the morning at T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island when the group met for their flight to D.C., “There were 1,000 people sending us on our way,” he said. “And if I had any doubts about how the veterans look in the eyes of the public they were resolved at that moment, because it was really sensational.”
At the time of the flight back, Henry said, the welcome wasn’t as sensational, but it was good. “There must have been hundreds of people if not 1,000,” he said. “We got the same kind of reception we got when we were sent off. Every time you do something like that you have more friends than when you started out. I was proud to be a member of that.”
Then came reflections on his career that included graduating from Taber Academy and designing the stage for Bob Hope’s USO show in Vietnam. “Not bad for a jucket from Marion,” he said.
“One thing I learned is to love every level of the people I worked with from patrol officers all the way up to platoon engineering group,” he concluded. “I felt a fatherly affection for them all.”
After his talk, the ceremony ended with “President Day Parade” from the Sippican School Band, who, Moore said, has performed for the ceremony for decades. Then came a benediction from Rev. Osterday and finally the band’s rendition of “Grand Old Flag.”
As if the skies knew it was over, snowflakes re-appeared only as attendees were exiting the park.
Marion Veterans Day
By Michael J. DeCicco