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A yellow rose was placed when the name of a Connecticut service personnel was read. Linda Lemmon photos.
Tyler Eddy plays Taps
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM — As is tradition, the Mayotte- Viens American Legion Post 13 organized the Beirut Barracks Bombing Remembrance Ceremony Oct. 21.
The town of Putnam is one of only two towns in Connecticut that holds a remembrance ceremony for the 241 U.S. service personnel who died Oct. 23, 1983, when a truck bomb was driven into a barracks in the Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon.
The ceremony included the reading of the names of those who died. When the names of the six who died from Connecticut were read, a yellow rose was placed at the base of the podium.
Mayor Barney Seney, in his remarks, noted that the bombing cost the most Marine lives since prior to WWII. “The loss of a life represents somebody’s wife, or father, or child,” he said. “It affects the whole family. We forget sometimes that every person is a member of someone’s family.”
Taking part were: Christopher Steinbrick (whose father, the late Don Steinbrick organized the ceremony originally), Post 13’s senior vice commander; the Color Guard including Michael Vassar, Chas Mackenzie, Curt Prowchowski and Frank Tremont; post member Connor Vassar; Michael Rocchetti, post commander; Tyler Eddy playing Taps. The VFW Post 1523 was also present.
Those who took part in reading the names of those who died included: Rocchetti, Tina Lajoie of Post 13, junior vice commander; Brian Maynard, past post commander; and Albert Cormier, post member-at-large.
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