13-year effort leads to Massachusetts' Legion post's impressive memorial

A memorial 13 years in the making was finally formally dedicated Sept. 25 in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass. And for members of nearby American Legion Amaral Bailey Post 113 – who were instrumental is getting the memorial built – the effort was well worth it.

Post 113’s Veterans Honor Roll was dedicated last weekend during a public ceremony attended by state political leaders and dozens of area residents. Located on the Town Common, less than a block from Post 113, the memorial honors anyone having served in the U.S. military while a resident of the town.

Post 113 Chaplain Bruce Heisey said the town originally had a memorial wall honoring World War I and World War II veterans, but it was taken down and no one knows where it ended up after that. Another one was built with pine and plexiglass, but exposure to the sun caused the names on it to bubble up, and the pine was starting to fall down.

“We told (the town) we need to build a new one, because this one isn’t going to last another year,” said Heisey, who first started the effort to get the memorial built with fellow Legionnaire Paul Sullivan at the urging of town leadership. “We’ve been fighting this battle since 2008. Trying to raise money and then the whole turndown in the economy. We (lost) a general contractor. We just couldn’t raise any money. It was difficult. I was selling pavers (for the memorial’s stone walkway). But we plugged away. It all worked out. And the town’s people are very happy with it.”

The 30-foot-long granite memorial stands five feet high and includes the names of around 1,000 servicemembers who in enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces while living in Manchester. The names are divided by war era and span from World War I to 2019.

“I think the names were important to have,” Heisey said. “People want to see their name. People want to see their brother, their sister, their father, whatever. It was important to do it that way.”

Heisey, a 43-year Legionnaire and six-time post commander, said initial fundraising efforts netted $30,000-$40,000, but “the budget kept growing bigger and bigger. We finally got a figure of $144,000, but when you’re sitting (where we were), $144,000 is a long ways away. And Paul and I said together we would not build the project and have it done halfway and not have the money to finish it.”

But then the pair was approached by a few fellow Manchester residents “who know a lot more people than we do. We were now raising $2,000, $3,000, $5,000, $10,000 – we even got one person with a $25,000 donation. It was a different clientele that is not in my phone book. They were dedicated. One of them was not a veteran, and one of them was. We were getting money from (their) friends in Virginia, in Tennessee, in California.”

Grants also helped cover the final $300,000 price tag and allowed for construction to begin.

Attendees at the dedication ceremony included State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, state Gaming Commissioner Brad Hill and Manchester Selectmen Chairman Jeffrey H. Bodmer-Turner. During the ceremony, Sullivan expressed thanks for the memorial. “We feel very, very privileged to be afforded this,” he said. “We assure you that we will visit it often, reflect, and cherish it always.”

For Heisey, seeing the Veterans Honor Roll dedicated – and the quality of the final product – is a fitting tribute to those from the town who have served in the military. “I’m so happy that the wall is built,” he said. “I’ve gotten so many people who have said how excited they were to see it. One woman, her husband was actually in Afghanistan. She would walk by the wall, go up and touch his name on the wall, and it gave her that support, that something she needed to say ‘I know where he is.’ That was a wonderful thing.”