By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
Dozens of veterans and their families from across the state, joined by city leaders and first responders and members of West Haven’s Veterans Council and Surfside Veterans, turned out May 27 to help dedicate 50 new bricks on the Veterans Walk of Honor and eight new names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Bradley Point Park.
The patriotic crowd, many wearing shirts and hats emblazoned with their service branches, gathered along the Walk of Honor on Long Island Sound as Mayor Dorinda Borer thanked veterans for their service and delivered poignant remarks dedicating the new bricks and names.
“Look around this beautiful park,” said Borer, speaking in front of a black granite memorial in commemoration of World War II Army Pfc. William A. Soderman. “Every monument, every stone and every blade of grass tells a story of unmatched valor. Today, with the installation of these 50 personalized charcoal-lettered bricks for Phase 18, this walkway now holds approximately 3,150 lasting tributes.”
Rick Spreyer, the mayor’s chief of staff, served as the master of ceremonies for the event, which was rescheduled from May 23 because of rain.
The seaside ceremony also featured remarks by Veterans Council President Dave Ricci, a Marine Corps vet of the Vietnam War and the president of West Haven Vietnam Veterans Inc.
“I want to thank the mayor for all her support and (veterans advocate) Beth Sabo,” Ricci said. “These bricks and this whole area, to us, is somewhat of a sacred thing, a place of remembrance.
“Don’t remember your loved ones for leaving, but how they stayed.”
Ricci ended his remarks by introducing West Haven Vietnam Veterans member Howie Thomas and reading an Apache blessing. Thomas, a Marine Corps vet, is a member of the Schaghticoke Indian Tribe of Kent in the hills of northwestern Connecticut.
The 40-minute program commenced with a procession of dignitaries and a flag-raising led by the West Haven Fire Department Honor Guard, composed of members of the West Haven Fire Department, the West Shore Fire Department and the City of West Haven Fire Department Allingtown.
The procession included West Haven, West Shore and Allingtown fire chiefs, officers and firefighters, along with City Council members Nancy Tagliatela, D-2, Gary Donovan, D-4, Edward “Mackie” McMillian, D-5, Dawn Callahan, D-6, David Beaton, D-9, Ronald M. Quagliani, D-10, and Sean P. Ronan, D-at large.
They were joined by Emergency Management Director Rick Fontana, Treasurer John Carew and Secretary Herb Hill of the First Fire Taxation District’s Board of Fire Commissioners, Commissioner Frederick Brown of Allingtown’s Board of Fire Commissioners, and West Haven Municipal Veterans Rep. Rich Deso, the president of Surfside Veterans.
The program included the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by West Haven High School junior Sophia Bella Martineau and an opening prayer by the Rev. Paul Bronson, the outreach pastor of Vertical Church of West Haven.
The event also included a wreath-laying at the base of the William A. Soderman Memorial by West Haven Vietnam Veterans members and Marine Corps vets Rick Foley and Marty Richards.
After the laying, Borer and Vietnam Veterans Treasurer Steve Carney dedicated the eight new names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
“To our Vietnam veterans: Your names are permanently etched into the absolute black granite of our city’s heart,” the mayor said.
Borer continued, “To all the veterans with us this evening: Thank you for your service, your sacrifices and your enduring examples of citizenship.”
Carney, an Army veteran, read a poem written by Army Maj. Michael Davis O’Donnell on New Year’s Day 1970 at the Battle of Dak To in Vietnam.
The dedication concluded with a closing prayer by Bronson and taps played by Ash Ortiz Serafin of the West Haven High School Band.
Borer and Carney then led a procession to the nearby Vietnam Veterans Memorial for additional remarks.
In fall 2025, for the first time since its dedication in 2003, the memorial’s black granite “wall” was expanded with a pair of adjoining sections featuring 35 new names.
The absolute black granite panels were installed by project coordinator Milestone Construction Services LLC of New Haven, which also prepared the site. The panels were procured by Connecticut Stone of Milford, and the inscriptions were crafted by the memorial’s original engraver, Shelley Bros.
The panels, a project initiated in June 2023 by West Haven Vietnam Veterans, were paid for by American Rescue Plan Act funds and dedicated last Veterans Day.
Then, in February, the West Haven Vietnam Memorial Inc. Committee launched a second phase to recognize 10 additional current and former city residents who served in-country during the Vietnam War by inscribing their names on the two panels.
The memorial wall shows the names of those from West Haven who served or gave their lives in Vietnam from 1959 to 1975, along with three white flagpoles draped with the American, Connecticut and prisoner-of-war flags.
The memorial also includes a black granite map of the four Vietnam battle districts bearing the inscription “All Gave Some, Some Gave All,” as well as five bronze insignia markers atop black granite posts representing each branch of the armed forces.
After the ceremony, families gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to look for loved ones’ names, both living and deceased, and lined the Walk of Honor to search for bricks purchased in honor of loved ones, living and deceased.
In November 2006, the Veterans Council began the first of 18 campaigns selling bricks to memorialize vets on the 100-yard walkway between the Soderman and Vietnam Veterans memorials.
About 3,150 bricks have been installed to date, including 72 for Phase 17, which was dedicated May 24, 2025.
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 the Soderman memorial 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.
In addition to overseeing the construction of all phases of the walkway, which was built by City Point Construction Co. of West Haven, Sabo supervised the design and placement of the granite Korean War and Soderman memorials, which 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.
Last year’s phase included the dedication of a memorial to veterans of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. The granite monument stands next to the Korean War Memorial.
The phase also included the dedication of a memorial to nurses of the U.S. armed forces. The granite monument lies next to a memorial dedicating the Walk of Honor.
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