By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
One after another, the four veterans stood on the steps of the monument at Veterans Park as “quilts of valor” were wrapped around their shoulders.
The presentation of handmade quilts by the South Jersey Quilts of Valor Foundation to Francis Diamond, Steve Burns, Matthew Manning and Thomas McCool served as a poignant moment during Sea Isle City’s Veterans Day ceremony.
The quilts are a way to honor the veterans for their military service, but also symbolically “give comfort” to them after experiencing the horrors of war.
“I felt very privileged. Basically, it was a privilege to serve the country,” Diamond, an 80-year-old Sea Isle resident, said afterward of receiving his quilt.
While serving in the Army, Diamond spent 13 months in 1957 and 1958 among the U.S. troops that guarded the demilitarized zone separating South Korea and North Korea following the Korean War.
“There were very rough living conditions,” he recalled. “There were no toilet facilities. We had powdered eggs, powdered sugar and powdered milk.”
Amid the hardships, Diamond formed a deep bond with 10 other soldiers who served with him in the DMZ. Only Diamond and two others are still living from the group.
“I kept in touch with all of them,” Diamond said. “I call them every Christmas.”
Mayor Leonard C. Desiderio and other speakers at the Veterans Day ceremony emphasized the sacrifices that countless members of the U.S. armed services have made since the country’s founding in 1776.
“We all know that our Constitution affords each of us a long list of personal rights and freedoms. However, it is our veterans who are to be thanked for ensuring that those freedoms live on and that our Constitution is more than just words on paper. It is a living and breathing document that is upheld by the sacrifices of its people – especially those who have served in our armed forces,” Desiderio said.
State Sen.-elect Michael Testa told the crowd that the nation should “never forget the debt we owe our veterans.”
“Without their courage and sacrifice we would, indeed, live in a very different world today,” Testa said in his first public speech since his Nov. 5 election as the new senator representing the First Legislative District of Cape May, Cumberland and Atlantic counties.
To begin the ceremony, Desiderio asked all of the veterans sitting in the audience to stand up and be recognized. A crowd in the hundreds warmly showered them with applause. One of the veterans was the mayor’s father, Leonard J. Desiderio, a 91-year-old Army veteran of the Korean War.
The mayor noted that while most U.S. veterans were welcomed home as heroes, those who served during the Vietnam War were often “horribly mistreated” by their fellow Americans. He said it has taken decades for the country to finally recognize the sacrifices they made and the “terrifying experiences they had to endure” in Vietnam.
“So, I hope that each of you Vietnam veterans who are here today – and in fact any veteran who feels unappreciated or wrongly treated – will please accept our thanks and our love for what you have done, and also accept our apologies on behalf of a grateful nation and a grateful Sea Isle City,” Desiderio said as the crowd applauded.
Burns, 76, one of the veterans who received a quilt of honor, said he was “humbled” by the ceremony. At the same time, he paid tribute to the more than 58,000 U.S. servicemen who were killed in Vietnam.
“I was fortunate. I’m here,” said Burns, a Sea Isle resident who served as an Army helicopter crew chief in Vietnam.
Manning and McCool, the other recipients of the quilts of valor during the ceremony, are also Sea Isle residents. Manning, 83, served in the Navy during the Korean War, while McCool, 75, is a Navy veteran of Vietnam.
Among the speakers, Cape May County Clerk Rita Marie Fulginiti noted that the men and women of the armed forces have repeatedly shown themselves to be ordinary people who rise to do “extraordinary things out of their patriotism for our country.”
“We owe them our liberty and our freedom, and that’s everything,” Fulginiti said.
At the same time, Fulginiti called on the country to do even more to help the veterans overcome chronic problems with such things as unemployment, homelessness, mental health and injuries from war.
Charles “Chick” Haines, commander of Sea Isle’s VFW Post 1963, said the veterans throughout U.S. history have had to endure the “hell of war.”
“American veterans have been defending our rights since the birth of our nation,” he said.
Haines pointed out that the families of veterans have sacrificed, too. They have to deal with the fear that they may someday hear the “knock on the door” to inform them that their loved ones have been lost in battle, he said.
“I say to the families of all veterans, thank you for being there for us,” Haines said.
