Memorial Day 2025

"The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army." 

- George Washington - August 27, 1776

On a warm summer morning in a field at Long Island, New York General George Washington spoke those words to an anxious group of young men gathered there to defend an idea.

Their belief in a free nation where the rights of a citizen were bestowed upon them by God and not by a king was radical at the time, but one worth fighting for, and, if necessary, dying for.

General Washington could not have had any idea at the time how true his words would become.

With the outcome of the struggle gravely in doubt, brave young men summoned the courage to lay upon the altar of freedom their life, their liberty and their fortune.

Included among those early patriots were the boys from Waltham.

As our Nation pauses to honor those who gave the last full measure of devotion in defense of our liberty we owe a special debt of gratitude to every generation of veterans, but especially to those who never made it back to neighborhoods across our city.

As you read their names, please remember that they were the kids that we see today on School Street, and on Lake Street, and on Hall Street, and on Main Street, and on Prentice Street and along Moody Street.

Remember that each of these kids had a unique voice and a hair color and a talent and a fault and a wit and a way of walking and a family left with a deep hole made by their passing.

During an interview for the finale of the highly acclaimed series 'Band of Brothers', based upon the Stephen Ambrose book of the same title, the leader of that band of brothers, Dick Winters, spoke of a grandchild who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?". His reply, softly spoken and through misty eyes, remembering his lost comrades, "No . . . but I served in a company of heroes".

If your child ever needs to write a report about a genuine American hero, there are more than three-hundred stories to choose from right here in Waltham.

These boys from Waltham left home for the last time never to see another ball game or to open a Christmas gift or to blow out birthday candles or to see their children grow. They met the tides of history and of circumstance with courage, devotion and selfless determination.

Remember them and pray for them. Pray also for their beloved families who paid a terrible price in handing their souls over to eternity and pray that the cause for which they gave their lives will never be forsaken.

Revolutionary War

Abijah Brown, Jr.

Abijah Childs

Isaac Crosby

Elijah Cutting

Roger Dench

Thomas Gardner

Civil War

Rufus Babcock

William Baldwin

Hiram Banks

Theodore Barnes

Orson Baxter

John Blake

George Brown

Charles Brown

Henry Burgess

Henry Carr

Joe Corrigan

John Dillon

Ed Doherty

John Donnigan

Henry Durivage

Tom Egan

Lyman Fairbanks

George Falls

Lyman Field

Patrick Flynn

John Gillespie

B.S. Harrington

David Hatch

Ed Hatch

William Hayes

Ed Hickey

Joseph Holbrook

Maynard Holbrook

Henry Howe

Roger Kane

George Lawton

Thomas Lawton

Michael McBride

Patrick McGuire

Francis Miles

Leonard Miller

Darius Moore

James Murray

John Newcomb

James O'Hearn

Anderson Posher

Francis Priest

Nahum Rand

F.P.H. Rogers

James Rooney

Horace Sanderson

Samuel Savage

Robert Sherman

Simon Smith

Tom Stickney

George Stone

Daniel Sullivan

Charles Traynor

John Thayer

Spanish American War

George E. Adams

James M. Dermody

Edward P. Doherty

Bernard M. Farrington

Allen M. McCullough

Charles Minnock

Robert J. Parnell

Dominick Walsh

World War I

Charles Bacon

Charles Basile

William B. Benner

Joseph A. Bruce

James B. Chadwick

George A. Chisholm

Raymond J. Collette

Alexander G. Collins

Francis D. Connors

Joseph E. Cormier

Thomas J. Courtney

Charles T. Curtin

Michael Devine

Richard F. Dreyer

Walter Duddy

Allison H. Earle

Louis H. Gorman

Clifton P. Greene

John P. Grogan

Ernest Hamel

Austin E. Harvey

Leslie R. Hodge

Rudolph Isaacson

Walter T. Jensen

Marcel Kwiatskowski

James F. Lally

John L. Lannigan

Harold B. Leach

Timothy Leary

Thomas McDonald

Frank J. McBride

Charles F. McInnes

Charles F. McKenna

James McKernell

Arthur V. Mogan

Arthur P. Mooney

Ernest D. Nealon

Hiram S. Newman

Bromly Palamountain

Domenic Parise

Fred C. Pearson

Albert E. Regan

Charles J. Rennie

Charles A. Sawyer

Joseph T. Sharpe

W. Wellington Sullivan

Stanley C. Swift

John R. Thompson

William A. Thompson

Paul Underwood

Franklin W. Vincent

Walter A. Walsh

James F. Walsh, Jr.

Archie Wheeler

Earl Whittemore

Clifford H. Wilson

World War II

Guido J. Abruzzi

Glen F. Allen

Louis J. Annunciata, Jr.

Raymond J. Arsenault

Walter L. Baldwin

Robert D. Balter

Elmer J. Barden

Francis A. Barnicle

Samuel J. Barron

Anselm L. Belliveau

Richard K. Bills

Leo J. Biron

Edward H. Black

John J. Bononi

Leo A. Boucher

William B. Boulton

Gordon E. Bouret

Gerald C. Breen

Hollis E. Brodrick

John S. Callahan

Charles J. Carney

Armand J. Casale

Henry L. Castagnetti

Robert L. Coleman

Robert E. Collins

Thomas F. Connors

George E. Conant

Frederick Cormier

Joseph P. Coughlan

James P. Cronin

John P. Crossland

Daniel F. Cushing

John DeMatteo

Americo D'Orazio

Ronald B. Dorrington

J. Clarence Doucette

Frederick J. Dowcett, Jr.

William R. Duane

John M. Duffy, Jr.

Harold C. Durkin

Robert W. Elder

S. Barton Eldridge

Richard L. Felt

Alfonse J. Ferrera

Michael Ford

William J. Forte

Paul H. Frechette

Harry Freedman

John F. Furdon

Charles R. Gallagher

John B. Gordon

Vaughn P. Grant

Merrill Grapes

Raymond E. Hadley

Thomas R. Halleran

Roy D. Halloran

James T. Harron

James F. Hart

Raymond F. Healion

Richard K. Henry, Jr.

Glenn C. Hepler

George E. Higgins, Jr.

William R. Hitchcock

William G. Houghton

Herbert F. Ingersoll

Bernard Jacobs

Benjamin F. Jakubik

Edwin E. Johnson

Francis J. Joyce, Jr.

Samuel Kaitz

Phillip F. Keefe

Henry J. Kelly, Jr.

Donald K. Kenneson

Robert A. Klug

Francis H. Kneeland

Philip A. Lanzo

George H. Large

Edward F. LaRosee

Arthur J. Lazazzero

William LeClair

William H. Leonard

Walter Luke

Robert A. Lyons

Joseph T. McCarthy

Charles E. McCullough

George E. McDonald

Earl A. MacDougall

Elmer J. McFarland

Warren I. MacRae

Joseph A. Madden

Joseph P. Maguire

John J. Mahoney, Jr.

Vincenzo Mandile

Robert C. Mansur

John F. Maroney, Jr.

Leonard M. Melanson

Harold A. Meyer, Jr.

John J. Minahane

Donald M. Morrison

John W. Murphy

Joseph T. Murphy

Lawrence J. Murphy

Thomas E. Murphy

Romeo A. Natoli

Thomas P. Noone

Sunda Palumbo

Lester F. Patterson

John P. Peirce, Jr.

Francis P. Pendergast

Edgar H. Peterson

Salvatore Picone

Francis J. Powers

Warren B. Pratt

George S. Purdy

Robert A. Qualters

Lawrence K. Reade

Edward J. Recka

Jerome Rizzo

Rosario Rizzo

Norman D. Robinson

Lawrence L. Rogers

John F. Ryan

Frank Savino

David E. Scott

Homer Sewall, Jr.

Arthur F. Shaughnessy

Raymond P. Shaughnessy

Harry E. Shubley, Jr.

Ernest Seigel

Robert A. Sloper

Chadborn Smith

Andrew Stanton

William A. Stanton

Edward C. Stearns, Jr.

Maxwell D. Stone

Christopher P. Straggas

James J. Sullivan, Jr.

Fred B. Sweetland

Domenic G. Tambascia

Edmund J. Thibeault

Lloyd W. Wade

Henry F. Walazek

Harold G. Walley

Leslie D. Walsh

John H. Watson

Roger R. Wellington

Charles E. Yeo

Kermit W. Youngquist

Bernard A. Zacame, Jr.

Korea

Joseph P. Aucoin

Frederick C. Berry, Jr.

Norman C. Brackett

William J. Burke, Jr.

Donald O. Campbell

Robert G. Curran

Robert C. Dakin

Joseph F. Hession, Jr.

Robert W. Howard

J. Allen Hurd

Raymond R. LaCava

Frederick E. Lamport

James L. McDonnell

John J. McLaughlin

Richard S. Scalia

Vietnam

Lawrence R. Duffy

Paul A. Dupere

Reginald J. Gautreau

Peter Gilmore

David P. Ingersoll

Thomas F. Jackson

Paul C. King, Jr.

Roderick J. McDonald

Kenneth F. Moores

Michael B. Murphy

Thomas E. O'Neill, Jr.

Joseph P. Rando

John M. Sullivan

Thomas J. Vezeau

Craig W. Wedge

Robert S. Wheeler

Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan

Brian J. Ouellette

. . . may their memories be eternal.

This Memorial Day Remembrance is dedicated in loving memory of my uncle and namesake, Lt. Francis J. Joyce, Jr., U.S. Army Air Corps, and the crew of his B-17 ‘Flying Fortress’; nicknamed ‘Ain’t Misbehaven’.

My uncle, ‘Buddy’, as he was known around the city, was 24 when he died. A 1937 graduate of Waltham High he attended college at Harvard and the University of New Hampshire. When he joined the service in 1942 he, like so many of his friends and neighbors, joined a cause greater than themselves, not being sure of the outcome but being sure of their duty.

Shortly after ten in the morning on May 8, 1944, his formation was attacked over Berlin, Germany by enemy fighter planes. The sole survivor of the attack, Sergeant Bob Swift, after being freed from a German POW camp in April, 1945, issued his statement to the War Department; “...enemy fighter fire knocked the ship to pieces in mid-air. I was blown out of my top turret gunner position and bailed out. The other nine members of the crew went down without a chance to bail out. Later saw remains of the crew around the ground.”

During year-long daylight missions over Europe in preparation for the D-Day assault that would come on June 6th, 1944, the Eighth Air Force lost half its men in battle. In helping to free an enslaved continent from ruthless tyranny the enormity of their sacrifice is beyond measure.

8th Air Force, 96th Bomb Group, 339th Squadron B-17G Air Crew 42-38190

1/Lt. James W. Fitzpatrick [ Pilot KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. Thomas E. Falls [ Co-Pilot KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. James W. Cline [ Navigator KIA 8MAY44 ]

2/Lt. Francis J. Joyce, Jr. [ Bombardier KIA 8MAY44 ]

T/SGT Robert T. Swift [Engineer/Top Turret POW 8MAY44 – RIP 1JUN06 ]

T/SGT Raymond G. Garafolo [ Radio Operator KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Buford V. McCarson [ Asst. Engineer/Waist Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Hersal B. Cralle [ Asst. Radio Operator/Ball Turret KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Charles H. Suessmann [ Armorer/Tail Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ]

S/SGT Donald L. Voorhees [ Asst. Armorer/Waist Gunner KIA 8MAY44 ]

Requiescat in Pace,

Frank Joyce, Memorial Day, 2025