By Marianne Sullivan, Source Senior Staff
Writer:
Thomas Francis
Jordan came home from church one Sunday morning in December 1941 to find his
mother in tears. She had just heard the news on the radio. The Japanese had
bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
The United States
was at war.
Like thousands and
thousands of young men, the next morning Jordan went to the Bridgeport Post
Office and enlisted. Because he was only 17, his mother had to sign his
enlistment papers. She cried again. He was sent to Groton and from there assigned to the USS Wichita
CA-45. For the next 42 months, he saw action in every major theater in the war
at sea.
Last week, as the
nation honored veterans on Nov. 11, state and local officials here also honored
the town’s World War II veterans. In a special ceremony held at the Polson Middle School,
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz presented the veterans present with
State of Connecticut World War II
Veteran Public Service Awards. She was joined by
First Selectman Al Goldberg, State Rep. Deb Heinrich, and State Senator Ed
Meyer.
The elected
officials were also joined by a score of veterans and their families and
friends. Bysiewicz, whose father is a World War II veteran, said, “We are
losing 40 veterans every day in the state, 1,500 in the country. I have held
these public awards ceremonies in 87 other communities in the state. Madison is the 88th. We
are here to say ‘Thank you’ to all of you.”
She also urged the
veterans “to share your stories with your children and grandchildren, so your
sacrifices will not be lost” to another generation. She then urged the veterans
in the audience to step up to the microphone to share their stories right
there.
Jordan, a retired Bridgeport policeman who
has lived in Windemere for the past 12 years, was the first to speak. He
introduced his niece, Sharon Eaton of Guilford,
whose son died in Iraq.
Jordan’s
story was repeated over and over by the veterans who followed him to the
microphone, each adding their own experiences in very brief remarks.
And there was Janet
Lee, who decided she would enlist. She traveled down to the recruiting office
on Broadway, took the necessary tests, passed and phoned her parents to say is
was joining the Navy. She became an aviation machinist mate assigned on the
West Coast, eventually leading the teams that serviced the planes. She loved
it.
“I took care of
those planes for young men like you,” she told her audience, “Young men who
went off into the blue. Some came back. Some did not.”
More than 100
veterans and their families attended the awards ceremony Nov. 13.
Pictured: Thomas Francis Jordan, like so
many other World War II veterans who spoke last week at a ceremony honoring
them, had never heard of Pearl Harbor until
Dec. 7, 1941. The next day, at age 17, he enlisted.
World War II veteran Alex
Kozikowski, accompanied by his grandson, led the assembled Madison
veterans and their families and guests in the Pledge of Allegiance at the
Public Service Awards ceremony last week at Polson Middle School.
Photos by Nancy
Dionne