Southwick Veterans War Memorial as seen in November 2016 that features the additions of the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars. A new panel honoring non-native Southwick veterans is being created. (THE WESTFIELD NEWS PHOTO)
SOUTHWICK – The town’s veteran’s organizations are seeking names to add to a new panel on Southwick’s Veteran’s Memorial monument.
Deadline is this Friday, June 12.
“To be eligible, they must have honorably served their country and deployed to a war zone from a different community, and then moved to Southwick after their service,” said Troy Henke of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 872. “Please contact us at the VFW for more details if you know someone who should be on there. We are meeting with the engraver this coming Friday, and the list will be established then.”
In order to be enshrined on the monument, the veteran must have lived in Southwick for 40 years following service or moved here within five years after discharge, and remained for the rest of their lives.
Veterans who died in non-combat related service who were from Southwick are also eligible.
“We have two such names so far, Tanner M. Brach and Nancy Odell-Liupakka,” Henke said. “Tanner died of a freak heart attack while on active duty in the Navy, and Nancy was killed in a vehicle accident while on active duty in Italy.”
Henke hopes people will come forward with more veterans.
“We currently only have eight names, and we know that there must be more,” he said.
The VFW and American Legion Post 338 are joining forces to add to the monument. Funding for the panel came from several sources, said Henke.
“The town donated $2,300 that was left over from a grant that was awarded to us when the Afghanistan/Iraq panel was built,” he said. “Everything else has come from private donations, with a total cost of $5,000.”
The original plan was to unveil the new panel at the Southwick 250th grand parade in October. Because of COVID-19, the parade and numerous other 250th related events have been postponed.
“Now that it is postponed to a date unknown, we don’t have an exact date, but it will be unveiled at this parade when it happens in 2021,” said Henke, adding “That is subject to change if we are able to do it sooner, but we want to unveil this with absolutely no restrictions as to whom and how many can attend.”
To submit a veteran’s name for consideration on the new memorial panel, contact Troy Henke via Facebook messenger.
