Edgartown and Oak Bluffs will host Veterans Day ceremonies this week to honor the Vineyard’s military service members.
The ceremony in Edgartown begins at 9 a.m. in front of the courthouse Wednesday. Later, in Oak Bluffs, a parade will begin at 11 a.m. in front of Nancy’s Snack Bar. The procession will march to the veterans memorial nearby where there will be a short ceremony. Afterwards, a luncheon at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9261 in Oak Bluffs, will begin at noon.
“We have a short march up and then we have a couple of speakers,” said George Pimental, an Islander who served as an infantry captain in the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment during the late 1970s and early ‘80s and is currently the director of veteran services in Dukes County. “We’ll do a rifle salute. We’ll play taps and we’ll lay a wreath at the memorial at the veterans memorial in the park.”
There will be a celebration on Tuesday the day prior recognizing the United States Marine Corps 251st birthday, said Jim Bishop, a Marine Corps veteran and the post commander of the VFW in Oak Bluffs.
For veterans, the day marks a moment to reflect on the cost of service.
“Veterans Day is for both living veterans and the veterans who have passed away,” said Tom Bennett, the director of veterans services at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services who served as a medic in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. “It means a whole lot of different things to each one of us.”
Today, according to Mr. Pimental, there are approximately 1,500 veterans and 250 surviving spouses who live on the Vineyard.
“Serving is very personal and what I’m trying to get across to people on the Island is that regardless of where you served or the branch in which you served, as long as you did your best, that’s what’s most important,” said Mr. Pimental. “Whether you were a cook, a fighter pilot, a mechanic or an infantryman…it takes a team to make everything work properly. The part that people, I think, miss with veterans is the pride and honor and sacrifice that they make and they make it together.”
Members of the Vineyard’s veteran community have served in every conflict that the United States has been involved in since its founding, from the Revolutionary War to the Global War on Terror.
“One thing I’d like for people to realize is that when a man or woman, young boy or young girl, goes into the military, they go in with a totally different perspective on life,” said Bob Tankard, who also served during the Vietnam War as a pharmacist in the United States Army and is currently acting as the veterans outreach worker and advocate at Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. “But when they come out and have faced some of the things that they face, they come out different people.”
Both Mr. Bennett and Mr. Tankard were born and raised on Martha’s Vineyard. Together, they have been advocating for veterans services within the community and have been spearheading fundraising efforts alongside veteran outreach programs here on the Island.
Recent projects such as the 12-unit under construction Bellevue veterans housing project, and the new Martha’s Vineyard Community Services center, which opened in October, have enabled the community to provide more services for Island veterans.
“The Bellevue housing project that Tom and I and the veteran outreach committee started six years ago is starting to come to fruition now, and that’s what we’re doing now: raising funds for our veterans,” said Mr. Tankard. “They need a place to live, and some of them are on hard times, and that’s what we’re doing to help them feel respected again.”