Rain, Wiscasset pause for Memorial Day observance
American Legion Post 54’s John Kennedy takes part in the Memorial Day service in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, American Legion Post 54 Auxiliary President Sandra Winters, Post 54’s James Quinnam and Daughters of the American Revolution’s Clara Wentworth approach the veterans wall to lay wreaths in Wiscasset Monday. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
American Legion Post 54 members, from left, Neil Page, Dennis Soule and Tom Stoner take part in the Post’s Memorial Day Service. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
American Legion Post 54’s Neil Page speaks with Sandra Shea about the veterans wall after Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Former Wiscasset selectman Ben Rines Jr. looks on during American Legion Post 54 of Wiscasset’s Memorial Day service at the veterans wall. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, Post 54’s Cliff Hendricks, Greg Curtis and Mike Barnes take part in the observance. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54’s Dennis Soule. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Betsy Kyle and Jeff Crafts, both of Wiscasset, talk before Monday’s service. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
American Legion Post 54’s John Kennedy takes part in the Memorial Day service in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, American Legion Post 54 Auxiliary President Sandra Winters, Post 54’s James Quinnam and Daughters of the American Revolution’s Clara Wentworth approach the veterans wall to lay wreaths in Wiscasset Monday. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
American Legion Post 54 members, from left, Neil Page, Dennis Soule and Tom Stoner take part in the Post’s Memorial Day Service. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
American Legion Post 54’s Neil Page speaks with Sandra Shea about the veterans wall after Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony in Wiscasset. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Former Wiscasset selectman Ben Rines Jr. looks on during American Legion Post 54 of Wiscasset’s Memorial Day service at the veterans wall. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
From left, Post 54’s Cliff Hendricks, Greg Curtis and Mike Barnes take part in the observance. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Post 54’s Dennis Soule. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Betsy Kyle and Jeff Crafts, both of Wiscasset, talk before Monday’s service. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Wesley Winters feels guilty sometimes for not getting into the Army. “I went in for the draft (in 1961), went in for a physical over in Portland and they didn’t take me because I had asthma.
“Then I went and saw the Coast Guard and joined the Merchant Marines. But I couldn’t get a job on a ship because they were all filled up,” the Wiscasset man told Wiscasset Newspaper Monday morning at the veterans wall at the town office. Minutes earlier, his wife, American Legion Post 54 Auxiliary President Sandra Winters, laid one of the wreaths in the Post’s Memorial Day observance.
As throughout the pandemic, the service had the wreaths, a gun salute, Legion member Tom Stoner playing “Taps” on the bugle, and no speeches.
It rained before and after, but not during, the service. Dozens of area residents turned out on the wet lawn. Winters comes to the Legion’s services at the wall because his wife takes part and because he, too, wants to honor those who served. Veterans always tell him he has nothing to feel guilty about “because war is not a good thing,” he said.
Post Commander William Cossette Jr. told the gathering, no flag would go to the youngest this time because no youth were there. And, smiling, he said no one wanted to admit to being the oldest.
Jeff Crafts of Wiscasset decided to come after hearing about it though the church he attends up the road, Wiscasset Church of the Nazarene. Crafts said his late father, Sangerville-raised Herbert Crafts, served in the Army doing medical work in the U.S. in the World War II era. Then the Army paid for his college education and he became a forester, his son said.
