MIDDLETOWN, CONN. (May 25, 2026)–Despite rain postponing the Middletown Memorial Day parade, a ceremony was held indoors at the American Legion Post 75.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Connecticut Commander Charles M. Pickett was the principal speaker, and delivered remarks to local leaders, veterans, and citizens.
Memorial Day Address: The Price of the Promise (Middletown, Connecticut)
Distinguished civic leaders, Mayor Nocera, elected officials, my fellow veterans, families of the fallen, and neighbors here in Middletown.
Memorial Day honors the members of our armed forces who made the supreme sacrifice in service to our nation.
For two and a half centuries, the United States has stood as a bold experiment in self-governance. In 1776, a promise was written on parchment—a promise of liberty, equality, and unalienable rights.
But as any veteran in this crowd will tell you, words on parchment only have power – ONLY if there are brave souls willing to defend them. The Declaration of Independence gave us our ideals, but it was the American Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman who gave us our freedom.
From the Connecticut Continentals who fought for a new republic, to the generation that preserved the Union, to those who answered the call in the World Wars, in Korea, and Vietnam, and most recently, to my fellow brothers and sisters in arms who served in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan—the thread of sacrifice is unbroken. For 250 years, the cost of America’s promise has been paid in the currency of American lives.
Today, we gather not to celebrate, but to remember. We step away from the routines of daily life to pay a debt that can never fully be repaid—a debt of absolute gratitude to the men and women who gave their last full measure of devotion to this nation.
Every town in Connecticut has its monuments, but Middletown holds a sacred place in the heart of our state’s veteran community. Just a mile and a half from where we stand, down Saybrook Road and up on Bow Lane, the rows of white headstones at the State Veterans Cemetery stretch across the field of honor. Those silent sentinels stand in perfect rows, up the rise from where ancient meltwaters carved the Algonquian great tidal river, as she flows into the Eastern uplands to its final confluence, with the somber Atlantic in Long Island Sound.
Those sentinels on the green grounds, bordering the wooded and untamed Maromas, remind us that peace is a hard-won reality, bought and paid for by ordinary citizens who did extraordinary things. They were young people from neighborhoods just like ours, who walked these same streets, who left behind their families, their dreams, and their futures so that we could inherit ours.
To quote Thorton Wilder’s 1938 play, Our Town, “I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you.”
I ask that we not be blind to the beauty of existence in the routines of daily life, and for today remember the terrible cost of America’s promise.
To our civic leaders here today: The best way we can honor the fallen is not just with bronze statues or flying flags or wreath ceremonies, but by building a community worthy of their sacrifice. It is by ensuring that the democracy they died for remains strong, transparent, and just–at the local level, right here in our Middletown.
To my fellow veterans: We carry a unique burden. We are the living keepers of the memories of those who did not make it home and those who went before us. We remember their names, their laughs, and the futures they were denied. We plant flags and place wreaths. We say their names.
Our mission is to ensure that the next generation understands that freedom is fragile. We must continue to serve our communities with the same honor we served our country.
As we look toward America’s 250th summer, let us pledge that the names carved into our local monuments and hearts will not fade into history. Let us live our lives with the awareness that our daily freedoms were purchased at an unimaginable price.
May we leave here today resolved to be better citizens, better neighbors, and build a stronger community.
God bless you, our fallen, Our Town, and God bless the United States of America.