Compiled by The Bedford Citizen
Veteran’s Day will be observed with Town offices and schools closed on Friday, November 10. A professional day for teachers on Monday, November 13 creates a four-day weekend for families.
Additional town-wide events are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, November 10 and 11.
At noon on Saturday, November 11, Bedford’s Patriotic Holiday Committee will hold its annual observance of Veterans Day in Veterans Memorial Park on The Great Road.
Residents are invited to join in honoring all veterans who served their country with honor in peacetime and in war.
Town ceremonies begin at 12 PM at Veterans Memorial Park on the Great Road (next to Bedford Funeral Home). The ceremony will last about an hour and will include an opening prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a patriotic sing-along, speakers, and a presentation of a special Veterans Memorial Wreath of Honor. Attendees are invited to remember a special veteran in their lives by placing a flag on the Veterans Memorial Wreath of Honor and sharing the name and military service of the honored veteran.
Singing of our National Anthem, firing of volleys by Bedford HS ROTC, the sounding of TAPS by Bedford HS band members and a closing prayer will conclude our ceremonies.
Contact Paul Purchia (781-275-2464) for last-minute information. Saturday’s weather is predicted to be sunny and in the 40s; in case of heavy rains, the ceremony will be moved to the Bedford High School auditorium.
On Sunday morning, November 12, First Parish on Bedford Common will observe Veterans Day when Andrew Bacevich, historian and Gold Star father, speaks at 10 am.
Historian and international relations authority Andrew Bacevich will be the guest speaker at First Parish, on the Bedford Town Common, on Sunday morning, November 12 at 10 am.
Bacevich is an American historian specializing in international relations, security studies, American foreign policy, and American diplomatic and military history. He is a Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. He is also a retired career officer in the Armor Branch of the United States Army, retiring with the rank of Colonel. He is a former director of Boston University’s Center for International Relations (from 1998 to 2005), now part of the Pardee School of Global Studies.
Bacevich has been “a persistent, vocal critic of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, calling the conflict a catastrophic failure.” In March 2007, he described George W. Bush’s endorsement of such “preventive wars” as “immoral, illicit, and imprudent.” His son, Andrew Bacevich Jr., also an Army officer, died fighting in the Iraq War in May 2007.
First Parish’s senior minister John Gibbons says that “Bacevich is a sober, conservative, insightful and important interpreter of current events. On Veterans Day weekend, we welcome his perspective.” Bacevich will be introduced by Bedford’s Brian Hart, another Gold Star parent.
“First Parish used to have the reputation of being an anti-war congregation,” says Gibbons. “While we continue to promote peace, we have been matured by the perspective of Gold Star families like the Hart’s and Bacevich’s.”
First Parish, Unitarian Universalist, is at 75 The Great Road. All facilities are handicapped accessible. For more information, 781-275-7994 or uubedford.org.
Honoring the Centennial of the Yankee Division’s participation in World War I, the Bedford Historical Society will wrap up the weekend with a program at Old Town Hall at 2 pm
When the call went out for American boys to join the fight to save democracy in Europe in 1917, the Yankee Division was the first to be organized, the first to cross the ocean, and the first to take to the battle lines in World War I.
Formed on July 18, 1917 and activated on August 22, 1917 at Camp Edwards, MA from units of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, the Yankee Division was the nickname of the 26th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.
The Division’s famous accomplishments will be described by historian Dan Leclerc at the Bedford Historical Society’s Sunday, Nov. 12th program. Those include facing intense enemy attacks in French towns like Apremont and Seicheprey, where its members demonstrated their courage and fighting spirit in what was sometimes bayonet-to-bayonet combat, and earned a regimental “Croix-de-Guerre” (French military bronze medal). LeClerc also will discuss four subsequent larger offensives of the Division, in which its members faced the full force of stiff enemy resistance, costing many casualties.
The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will begin with a half-hour refreshment period at 2 pm in the Great Hall of Old Town Hall, 16 South Road. At 2:30 pm, after brief announcements, Society President Don Corey will introduce LeClerc.
Dan Leclerc taught history for 20 years in the Chelmsford and Hingham Public Schools, and was a senior administrator for 12 years and retired as Assistant Superintendent in the Ashland Public Schools. He holds a Masters Degree in History from Northeastern University specializing in Modern European and Early U.S. Colonial History and has made numerous trips to the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to sites in Germany, Russia and Israel. He is a frequent speaker to historical societies and libraries, and currently teaches in the Beacon Hill Seminars and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes at UMASS Boston and Tufts University.
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