Hundreds attend dedication of WWII memorial

HOULTON – Nearly 800 people packed into Monument Park on Wednesday afternoon to honor the town’s 1,232 World War II veterans, whose names are inscribed on the town’s new war memorial.

“My dad’s up there,” said Joan McAfee of Houlton, who was at the monument with one of her daughters, as she gestured toward the name, Leo W. Gravel. “He was in the Navy, in every theater. It makes me want to cry.”

McAfee wasn’t alone in feeling the emotions of the day. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and children by the score went to the 11-foot-high, 17-foot-long monument to find the names of family members and to reflect, posing for pictures or just staring at a name; maybe theirs, maybe that of a close friend or relative.

“It’s wonderful,” said Lisa Protsman of Austin, Texas, who was in town for a family reunion over the holiday. Her mother’s name is on the monument, along with that of her uncles and an aunt.

“It makes me very proud,” she said, pointing to the names.

Her mother, Margarite Lloyd Crane of Tucson, Ariz., was there with her brother Samuel Lloyd of Pittsfield and Genevieve Lloyd Crane of East Hartford, Conn. All three served in the U.S. Navy and have their names on the monument.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” said Crane. “We didn’t know [about the monument] until we got up here.”

The monument is a gift to the town from Jack D. Smart and his wife, Anita, of Readfield. Smart is a native of Houlton and served in the U.S. Navy during the war. After the war, he became a successful businessman in the shoe industry.

The monument cost more than $25,000.

Ever humble, Smart took a brief look around Wednesday at the people in the park and said, “It’s more than worth it. It’s a wonderful crowd. I’m delighted so many people showed up.”

When he later addressed the crowd, Smart recalled his generation and how people his age endured the hardships of the Depression and the tragedies of the war.

After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, “we could hardly wait to join the service. Diplomas were put off and weddings deferred. Honor, duty and patriotism were real and meant something,” he said.

Town Councilor Dorothy Donahue accepted the monument on behalf of the town.

“Please take good care of this monument,” Smart said to her. “Every name on it is precious to someone forever.”

Only 12 hours after the monument was raised earlier this week, it was vandalized when an unknown person threw a rock at it, leaving a chip by one of the names.

During the playing and singing of the national anthem by Elwood J. Howard, the crowd was still. The only noise was the rustling of leaves as a gentle breeze blew through the park. Many in the crowd wiped tears from their eyes at the anthem’s conclusion.

The tears came again during the playing of taps and the lowering of the monument’s American flag to half-staff. Instead of silence, however, there was a roar of flame and smoke as members of the Maine State Select Honor Guard fired a 21-gun salute with a ceremonial cannon.

Keynote speaker for the program was Daniel E. Wathen, chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Recalling President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Wathen said that the famous speech answered the question, “Why are we here?” for people at that time.

“The same question must be asked today,” he said. “Did Jack Smart and others prepare a monument to a dying breed of heroes, the likes of which will never be seen again? I don’t think so.”

Noting that the names engraved on the monument represented 17 percent of the town’s population during the war years, he asked the audience to imagine the magnitude of such a departure.

He also told of his uncle’s World War I dog tags which he still wears around his neck and from which he draws comfort in times of worry.

“This memorial to the veterans of Houlton serves the same function,” he said. “It’s not a monument to a dying breed, but a shining monument to us and those who follow.”