Forgotten Veterans of the Great War

[jacobtowne]

Recent AP story.

Chelsea dedicates new WWI memorial after finding forgotten vets

By Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press Writer | November 11, 2006

CHELSEA, Mass. --Ernie Sullivan was searching for a hands-on project for his Advanced Placement U.S. History class when he told his students to research a World War I memorial near Chelsea High School. What he and the teenagers found, he said, was a "huge historical omission."
The plaque didn't include the names of more than three dozen soldiers with ties to Chelsea who died during the war.

On Saturday, the work that began as a class project in 2001 culminated with the dedication of a new memorial with 99 names -- including 41 that weren't on the original. The ceremony was attended by Sullivan, his former students, veterans and city officials.

The new monument at the high school has four gray stones etched with the names of members of the U.S. Army, Navy and Marines, as well as British and Canadian forces. Three flag poles stand behind the stones.
"Civil order depends on a collective memory that goes deep," Chelsea Public Schools Superintendent Thomas Kingston said at the ceremony. "It is the persistence, patience and determination of teachers like Ernie Sullivan who keep our memories alive."

Sullivan, who retired in 2005 after a 35-year teaching career, said he wanted to create a project that would connect history to the students' lives during the last five weeks of class, after they had taken the intense Advanced Placement test.

"History is dry, but it doesn't have to be," he said.

During class, Sullivan showed the students the bronze plaque that had been on the Chelsea Memorial Stadium and told them to investigate the 58 people listed on it, including where they lived, their work and their families.
The class soon discovered names of veterans who weren't on the plaque. When the school year ended, Sullivan continued the task alone, painstakingly reviewing names listed in Massachusetts' Gold Star Record, which was published in 1929 by the state to list all soldiers killed in war.
Two students rejoined the effort that fall, including Jelena Pejic, now 23. Pejic said she wanted to give back to the community and also felt a connection to the soldiers who were immigrants like herself.

"It felt like a treasure hunt when we were doing it," she said.

Along with missing names, the students uncovered interesting stories. One student lived in the same home as one of the forgotten soldiers. Through e-mail, Sullivan also discovered the French cemetery two men were buried in. A man in France later filmed the cemetery for Sullivan and spoke to his class during a visit to Boston.

"That was an interesting history lesson," Sullivan told the crowd Saturday.
Sullivan said the list on the original monument probably wasn't complete because the research tools he and his students used, such as the Internet, weren't available in the 1930s. Many of the servicemen weren't married, and probably had few relatives, he added.
Malden resident John Flynn's uncle, Robert T. Murray, was omitted from the original plaque. Flynn's own research led him to Sullivan and the memorial just a few months ago.

Flynn, 82, a World War II veteran, said Sullivan and his students deserve a lot of credit. "Wasn't that great in this day and age to think they would take the time?" he said.




JT