BETHEL — “The [Vietnam Veterans] on their arrival home were told to change into civilian clothes before getting off the plane … people spit in the face of these soldiers calling them killers. So many names on the Vietnam panel are names I know” said Jane Ryerson, pausing to compose herself. “Welcome Home” she told them.

“I take each name seriously,” said Ryerson. She recounted a recent exchange with a woman whose uncle was included on the memorial, “but why not her grandfather, also a veteran?” the woman asked. After much research, Ryerson told the woman that her father would not be included since he was not a resident until years later. Acquisition of names was the largest time consumer by Ryerson and other volunteers. They visited the Maine archives, cemeteries; scanned civil war books and old newspapers kept by Ryerson’s grandmother.

As participants arrived Monday, they saw American flags decorating telephone poles along Main and Broad Streets. They heard the Mahoosuc Community band playing patriotic songs from flatbeds attached to a farm truck. During the service the band played, “A Medley of Military Hymns” songs distinguishing each branch of the military. The men from each branch stood as their music was played. Some saluted.

Dressed in a traditional Revolutionary War uniform, Commander Harry Orcutt, Jackson Silver Post 68, spoke on Western Maine’s participation during this war of 200 plus centuries ago. He cited the significance of the history, saying that a Maine resident whose family extends many generations in Western Maine likely has a revolutionary war ancestor. “The connections to the past run deep here. We best honor their history, our history, by building on the foundation they made.”

Guest speaker, the Honorable Jarrod Crockett, Oxford County Judge of Probate and Major, US Army, retired, spoke of Maine’s contribution to many wars including their outsized role in the Civil War. “… a bayonet charge on a small rocky hill called Little Round Top that marked a decisive point in a battle that changed the tide of war which ended the evil enterprise of slavery.”

Crockett and his family head to East Bethel each year to visit the grave of Sergeant Isaac W. Estes, of Maine’s famed 20th Regiment. Estes was wounded on July, 4 at the Battle of Gettysburg and succumbed to his wounds twelve days later. Crockett, says “By mentioning his name today, I fulfill a personal vow to Sergeant Estes as well as my conscience to keep his family’s story of sacrifice alive a little longer.”

Bringing the message closer to home and noting the empty space on the back of the monument, he said, “There are places for hundreds of additional names to be engraved. To sustain the peace and freedom to which we have become accustomed these spaces will be filled names of Bethel’s son and daughters in the generations to come.”

Ryerson along with her husband Craig, John Head, Richard Grover and a small army of volunteers, spent several years designing, meticulously researching, and finally completing after 11 years, the Veterans Honor Roll Park in Bethel. They raised money, from volunteers and taxpayers, and solicited volunteer monument labor from others. Ryerson recognized and thanked all the volunteers at a dual Memorial Day Service and Veterans Honor Roll Park Dedication, held Memorial Day at 10 a.m.

Following a vision “mapped out on a napkin” 11 years ago, and a subsequent mission statement crafted by their volunteers, they went to work. Ryerson estimated 40, 000 volunteer hours were spent. They waited two years for the current site to be acquired by the town, starting over after the first design and location were given up. Fundraising was their biggest obstacle, said Ryerson, but the generosity of local contractors helped considerably toward slashing their original estimate of $250,000.

The monument honors 1,350 veterans from Bethel, Grafton Twp., Albany Twp., Mason Twp and Riley Plantation. Men and women from this corner of Maine who contributed bravely to all U.S. wars, starting with the American Revolution and ending with The Global War on Terror are memorialized on the wall.

At the conclusion of Ryerson’s speech, she said the project was a “labor of love” by all who have worked on the committee. “All veterans who served then and who serve today deserve every bit of our respect, our gratitude, our admiration and our thank-you’s … they deserve recognition. Something a veteran would never ask for. That is what this honor roll does.”

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