By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
West Haven Veterans Council members and city officials will dedicate Phase 17 of the brick Veterans Walk of Honor in Bradley Point Park at 5 p.m. Saturday.
This year’s phase will also include the dedication of a granite memorial to veterans of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan and the dedication of a granite memorial to nurses of the U.S. armed forces.
All veterans are invited to participate in the seaside ceremony, which will feature a flag-raising, an invocation and a wreath-laying, as well as remarks by Mayor Dorinda Borer and Veterans Council President Dave Ricci.
The public is also invited. The rain date is June 7.
Rick Spreyer, Borer’s chief of staff, will serve as the master of ceremonies.
In November 2006, the Veterans Council began the first of 17 campaigns selling bricks to memorialize vets on the 100-yard Walk of Honor between the William A. Soderman and Vietnam Veterans memorials.
The bricks, which cost $75, have charcoal lettering for personalized messages.
About 3,100 bricks have been installed to date, including 72 for Phase 17 and 47 for Phase 16, which was dedicated May 25, 2024.
Phase 1 of the Walk of Honor was dedicated in May 2007, along with a memorial to Korean War veterans.
In May 2008, Phase 2 of the walkway and a memorial in commemoration of World War II Army Pfc. William A. Soderman were dedicated.
Soderman received the Medal of Honor after he distinguished himself in December 1944 while defending an important road junction near Rocherath, Belgium.
On July 1, 1984, Bradley Point Park’s flagpole was dedicated in memory of Soderman, who died in 1980.
Also in 2008, 14 grave markers signifying every war in U.S. history and peacetime were dedicated. The markers are mounted on granite posts.
The walkway was built by City Point Construction Co. of West Haven. The granite Korean War and Soderman memorials were made by Shelley Bros. Monuments of Guilford.
In May 2015, the dedication of Phase 8 included the dedication of a granite stone in memory of Veterans Council President Lorelee “Lori” Grenfell, who died in 2015 at age 60. The memorial was crafted by Giordano Bros. Monuments of West Haven.
Subsequent dedications have been held amid much fanfare, attracting hundreds of veterans and their families from all corners of Connecticut and beyond.
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