Advisory Military and Veterans Liaison Committee

MEETING MINUTES ADVISORY MILITARY and VETERANS LIAISON COMMITTEE MONDAY, JUNE 14, 2021 - 5:00 P.M. ONLINE – ZOOM WEB CONFERENCING NORWALK, CT 06851 1. CALL TO ORDER, PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: the meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m. and the Pledge of Allegiance was led by Jeff DeWitt. 2. PUBLIC FORUM: a. None. 3. ROLL CALL: a. Present (7): Jeff DeWitt, Chair; Irene Dixon, Mayor Rilling’s Staff; Leon Breault, Veteran At-large; Matt Seebeck, Veteran At-large; Fred Wilms, Financial Services Chair; Orlando Aquino, Community Health Center; Brian Griffin, Norwalk Chamber of Commerce (by phone). b. Absent or excused (2): Deanna D’Amore – Health Department; Howard Dixon, Veteran At- large; Bryan Rooney, Veteran At-large. c. A reminder, there are vacancies for Vice Chairman and a legal advisor. In addition, there are two vacancies for At-Large veterans who are interested in getting involved. 4. OLD BUSINESS: NOTE: Due to this being a “Special Meeting” because of the time change, the meeting had to be kept to the outline of the agenda given to the city. a. Staff Sergeant Louis S. Doddo of South Norwalk was killed in action on the island of Saipan in 1944. He was listed as MIA until 2020 when a DNA match was made. Burial is on June 18, 2021, 12:00 p.m., St. John’s Cemetery. (CLOSED) b. (REPEAT) Physical binder of veterans’ resources in the City of Norwalk is being finalized. There is a collection site for documentation online until a resource document can be built or published online. UPDATE: The Google Drive for the committee is the repository for much of what has been collected to date and the shell of a physical binder was started months ago. Continuing to work on the content. Matt Seebeck and Fred Wilms both gave their thoughts on the way forward. This is now the #1 priority for the committee. (OPEN)  c. Outreach to veterans and their families: the mayor’s office occasionally receives requests to assist or honor a veteran, as does the American Legion. As these opportunities arise, the committee stands by to assist in any way. (CLOSED) d. (REPEAT) Creation of a veteran registry in Norwalk is being requested to the IT Department in City Hall. A link was sent to IT and they have been asked about the feasibility of duplicating what the State of Pennsylvania has already done. Irene Dixon will follow up with the IT Department who are quite busy these days. (OPEN) https://www.dmva.pa.gov/veteransaffairs/pages/outreach-and- reintegration/pennsylvaniaveteransregistry.aspx e. Partnership with the Norwalk Chamber of Commerce: (REPEAT) A database of veteran owned businesses in Norwalk would be great to have. Creating a veteran-owned business registry through the Chamber of Commerce is the recommendation. The goal would then be to create a Veterans Chamber as a subcommittee of the larger Chamber. This would give those business owners a chance to get together to share best practices and ways to market themselves in the city, as well as to participate in larger Chamber events throughout the year. UPDATE: Jeff DeWitt will draft some language about the framework of the MVLC for the Chamber’s newsletter. (OPEN) f. The Ceremonies & Honors Committee ran three of their 4 key programs in May. Cemetery visits were May 16, 10:00 – 1:00; the Veterans Memorial Ceremony was on May 16, 1:00 – 1:45, and the Memorial Day Parade was on May 31, 10:00 – 11:00. Many lessons were learned and improvements will be made. The final order of business at their meeting was to change their name from Ceremonies & Honors Committee back to Norwalk Veterans Memorial Committee. The committee is on a two month break when they will meet again on September 7, 7:00 p.m., American Legion downstairs hall. g. The process to add a Purple Heart Monument to honor Norwalk’s combat wounded in Veterans Park is working its way through the necessary city committees and commissions before it is presented to Common Council for approval and funding. (OPEN) h. The addendum to the Vietnam War plaque at the Shea – Magrath memorial will be ready in a few weeks. Coordination with surviving family members will be needed to have an event where the plaque is unveiled. Also, there was a plaque at City Hall in need of repairs. That work has been completed. See attachment 1 for before and after pictures. (OPEN) i. The sculpture at Veterans Park titled “Denial of War” is in need of a facelift. The record found on the Smithsonian’s website is Attachment 2 to these minutes which give a bio of the sculptor. It was donated in 1966 and there is no way to know if it has ever been cleaned. The bronze needs to be uniform in finish and hue. The concrete beneath the sculpture has been discolored over time. A request to the Rec & Parks Department to add this to their next committee meeting has been sent forward. (OPEN)  j. Permanent flag holders for Riverside Cemetery have been purchased by the American Legion and VFW. The intent is to honor the veterans who died during wartime service that are buried there. There is a concern of theft, so a request was put in to permanently affix the flag holders via an underground concrete base. The cemetery owner has given the grounds crew the project to complete. The goal is to honor a select group of veterans – those who died during time of war. Not all were killed in action. Some were by disease or accidents, but none less worthy than the other. They answered the nation’s call. The long-term goal is to replicate the project in every cemetery in Norwalk. (OPEN) k. Meetings will move to the second Monday of each month. The pandemic era meetings moving to quarterly has been overcome by the vaccination of a large majority of residents. Our hope is to go to in-person meetings, however, we are bound by the business rules of the City of Norwalk and will await their guidance. See paragraph 10 below for the date/time of our next meeting. (OPEN). 5. NEW BUSINESS: a. None 6. GOOD OF THE ORDER: a. The City of Norwalk has applied to host the mobile Vietnam Veterans Wall, “The Wall That Heals”, in 2022. We have explicitly asked for a date during the school year so youth in the area can really get a sense of what the wall and the war means. This will be approached as a county- wide event, versus Norwalk-centric. Norwalk is the host city but the reach should be far and wide to attract people and Vietnam Veterans this event. (OPEN) 7. MILITARY AND VETERAN RELATED EVENTS JUNE 2021 1: MVLC’s Ceremonies & Honors Committee meeting, American Legion, 7:00 p.m. 6: Veteran of the Month / Flag Raising Ceremony, American Legion, 11:00 a.m. 10: VFW Post 603 meeting, American Legion, 7:30 p.m. 14: U.S. Army birthday and Flag Day 15: American Legion meeting, 7:00 p.m. 20: Father’s Day 21: Juneteenth (observed) 27: PTSD Awareness Day; VFW Post 603 is hosting an event titled “11 for 22” on this date (6/27/2021). The translation is an 11 mile walk to end 22 veteran suicides per day across America. The chosen charity is One Mind (https://onemind.org). Donations can be made through a direct GoFundMe site (link below). Their focus is research into PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury), direct links in some cases to veteran suicide. The walk will begin at the Darien VFW and conclude at the Westport VFW with a stop at the Shea – Magrath Memorial and Wall of Remembrance at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk. Donations are being accepted at: https://gofund.me/a6ef2864. If you would like to participate in the walk, complete the waiver at: https://tinyurl.com/r8ep4huw and e-mail it to ctvfwpost603@gmail.com. Further instructions on locations, times, etc., will be sent to you at that time. JULY 2021 4: Independence Day 11: Veteran of the Month / Flag Raising Ceremony at the American Legion, 11:00 a.m. 16: 100th anniversary of the cannon being donated to Norwalk AUGUST 2021 1: Veteran of the Month / Flag Raising Ceremony at the American Legion, 11:00 a.m. 4: U.S. Coast Guard birthday 7: National Purple Heart Day SEPTEMBER 2021 5: Veteran of the Month / Flag Raising Ceremony at the American Legion, 11:00 a.m. 6: Labor Day 11: Patriot Day 8. ADJOURNMENT: the meeting was adjourned at 6:37 p.m. 9. NEXT MEETING: July 12, 2021, 6:00 p.m. Unknown format. Attachment 1 BEFORE AFTER Attachment 2 Harry Marinsky, painter, sculptor, illustrator and designer, was born in London to Russian émigré parents who were both designers in the high fashion industry. When his parents settled in England, they took the name “Marinsky” from the famous Marinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, a name they knew the English would recognize and associate with artistic endeavor. Harry Marinsky came to the United States as a young man and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Pratt Institute of Art. By the age of twenty-eight, he was art editor of the magazines American Home and Country Life. Although he first won acclaim for his accomplished watercolors, Marinsky became a noted sculptor. In 1972 he moved to a farmhouse in the Italian village of Capriglia, near Pietrasanta and the celebrated Tomassi Foundry where he produced many works in bronze. He was active as a sculptor until his death at the age of ninety-nine. Marinsky was a member of the Artists’ Equity Association and the Silvermine Guild of Artists. In 1944 he exhibited for the first time at the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1943 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. He had his first one man show at Madison Square Garden in 1946, followed by other one-man shows at Silvermine, Eggleston Gallery, and the Bodley Gallery. He also exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Rhode Island Museum of Art, and the Montross Gallery. Denial of War, Veterans Park, Norwalk CT; Smithsonian record Medium: Sculpture: bronze and white granite; Base: concrete Type: Sculptures-Outdoor Sculpture; Sculptures Owner/Location: Administered by City of Norwalk Department of Parks and Recreation 125 East Avenue Norwalk Connecticut 06851 Located Veterans Memorial Park Seaview Avenue, between Washington Street & Osborne Avenue Norwalk Connecticut Date: Ca. 1966. Dedicated May 30, 1966 Notes: Save Outdoor Sculpture, Connecticut survey, 1994. Image on file. The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide. Summary: Four somewhat abstract military figures, two males and two females, ascend eight white, loosely spiraled, broken granite steps. The top figure holds an American flag in his proper right hand, all the other figures have their arms upraised with fingers spread, in attitudes of reaching. All of the figures wear helmets. The female figures wear knee-length dresses. Clothes on all figures are indicated by a diagonal striated texture. The stars and stripes of the flag are indicated by negative space cut into the bronze background. Topic: History--United States--Military history Figure group Occupation--Military Ethnic Dress--Uniform--Military Uniform Object--Other--Flag Architecture--Detail--Stairs Control number: IAS CT000336 Data Source: Art Inventories Catalog, Smithsonian American Art Museums EDAN-URL: edanmdm:siris_ari_335345