001Welcome everybody and thank you so much for joining us at our veterans lunch today. We come together to celebrate and thank all of you who have served our country. Your courage, dedication, and sacrifice means so much and we're truly grateful for everything you've done. On your tables, you will notice there are cards. These cards were made by the Ashland Middle School students. Please feel free to take them away with you if you'd like. Um, please read them. Um, they were really nicely done. Um, we also want to give a big big thank you to the Ashland Professional Firefighters Local 1893 and the Ashland Police Association Local 403 for their continued support and generosity. It's certainly an honor to gather with all of you this morning as a representative of our select board and our community.
002at at large. I I too thank the Ashlin Police, the Ashlin Fire Department, and the unions for today's lunchon, providing us this opportunity to celebrate Veterans Day. I thought about the incredible sacrifices made by ordinary citizens who answer a national call to do extraordinary things. I had a conversation with a friend who has served and continues to serve our country for 25 plus years. We talked about how warfare has changed in the days when this commemoration began as Amisters's Day, marking the end of World War I. In the last century alone, we have seen the evolution from the mud and trenches of World World War I to the armored maneuvers of World War II, the air power and ground flick conflicts of the 20th century, and the complex global challenges of today. Mod modern co
003conflicts are no longer confined to battlefields with clear front lines. Our defense now takes place across land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. He spoke of his deployment in the mountains of Afghanistan and he paused when he did that. It was a touching moment for me to see I already said that. Sorry. Today we speak, if when I go off paper here, I get lost. Today we speak of drones, satellite, command, and cyber security in a way that we would have been unimaginable to the veterans of past generations. Indeed, the tools of war have changed. The tactics have changed. The technology has become incredibly advanced, requiring new forms of expertise and vigilance. But something hasn't changed, and that is the fundamental character of those who serve. The core values of their of their courage, integrity, selflessness,
004and a deep sense of duty remain a constant thread that connects every generation of veterans. from the soldier at Valley Forge or the sailor on a nuclear submarine, the pilot in the sky, the marine on the front lines, and the guardian in orbit. The commitment they make is the same. They write a blank check to the United States of America for an amount to including veterans and that the health of our republic depends upon citizens willing to stand up, work together and defend the constitutions and safeguard our liberty. Their willing willingness to put their lives on the line which our veterans have carried the torture of freedom to every corner of the world. Today we honor that timeless character. We honor the resilience, the discipline, and the quiet integrity with which our veterans have carried
005the torch of freedom to every corner of the world. To all our veterans here today, thank you. Thank you for your service. We are forever grateful for your courage and dedication. You have protected our democracy and shown us the true meaning of sacrifice. To all of our veterans, we thank you. We can honor your legacy by living responsible as responsible citizens, upholding the values of you fought for, and continuing to build a more perfect union together. At this time, it is my honor to introduce someone who has lived that life, a former member of the United States Air Force and retired judge, the Honorable Michael Fabry. Okay, I got to use the microphone. That's fine. I I want to start where where Claudia ended, and I had worked it into my comments, which I'll give
006after the pledge and after we eat, but the uh phrase about the check. Um, veterans sign that check and you sign it without regard to the consequences to yourself, your family, your friends. Um, because that's what you do and that's what we do for our country. So, thank you, Claudia, for recognizing that as well. At this time, I'd like uh to have everybody rise. We're going to start with the pledge of allegiance. Uncover if you have a cover. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Now I would like to introduce um the Beantown Bound Quartet. They will come up and sing the national anthem. >> And if guests could
007rise. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light on so proudly we hail at the twilight last gleaming whose brush and bright stars through the perilous fight or the raids we were so gallently streaming and the rockets red bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled better yet way for the land of the rock of the brave and the home of the brave. This is my country of my country on earth. My blessing my America for this is my country to heaven and to my Thank you very much. We are a quartet called Beantown Bound. We're based in Framingham, but we're from all over the region. Actually, we've got singing. No, I'd like to introduce the quartet. Can you hold one
008second? Nice. Never gets old. Never gets old. So, uh, from the little town of Mending Tener, we have Mr. Skip Rel. Our marvelous read comes all the way from Milford, Mr. Bass from Firmingham, Corbin Larson. And we have in addition to being a a veteran himself from the very little town, Mr. John. Um, looking out there and seeing the fire department, the police department reminds me of my youth growing up in Ashland. My father was a member of the police department for over 20 years and part time and also a member of the fire department for over 20 years. Also, it was a volunteer department back then and he he kept his boots next to his bed. Uh but anyway, he he also belonged to a quartet, Barbershop Quartet. And in 1942, their their quartet
009was singing in a club in Boston. And one of the songs they might have been singing, written in 1940, >> was a song that the uh the Ink Spots made popular, and it was called Java Jai. I love coffee. I love tea. I love it. Seniors do a good job. >> And tea and me. I love java. Sweet and hot meluck. I love coffee. I love tea. I love coffee and tea and a cup of Boston. Soy beans and greens. Unless he likes it hot. Wonderful mug and I'll rug till I'm in a nickel in the taking it slower waiter. I love tea. I love it. Coffee and tea and tea. A cup more audience participation opportunity here. So pay attention to Ralph and uh you may have a chance They say there are three
010kinds of people in this world. People who let things happen, people who make things happen, and people who sit back and say, "What happens?" You're all going to want to make things happen. So repeat after me. Hidey, hold. Oh, I see somebody want to sit back there and just let things happen. Repeat after me. Okay. >> That Callaway cloud She was the roughest as big as a whale. High dey. She blessed around with a bloke named Smokey. He landed her right into the pokey. He took her down to Chinatown and show her how to kick the gun around. High he mighty hideyholy holy will preacher low down said to her you want to slow down there and the picture is I'm going to take it as they now is Daisy, you heard my story. Now
011it's my song. She was a real good girl. >> Holy, holy, >> holy, hideyho. We're going to finish with one more song for you. Uh, thank you for having us here. It's always a pleasure. We were here last year. We hope to be here for many more. So, enjoy your cake and eat it, too. Storm clouds around. But after the rain comes a rainbow. This I go in my heart again. Don't know where. But I know we'll meet again some sunny day. I'll keep smiling just like you always do. Till the blue skies dry, the darks far away. So will you please say hello to the folks that I know I won't be long. They'll be happy to know that you saw me go this song. We'll meet again. But I know we'll meet again.
012Some sunny day. Someday we'll meet again. Someday again. I'm uh the town manager here. Uh in a very strategic move, they moved me to the middle of the program after everybody eats because they knew if they put me at the beginning, um you guys would still be hearing me talk and being hungry. So, uh this was a this was a very good move on everybody's part. But um first of all, I want to just take an opportunity to thank all of our veterans uh for everything that they've done for our country. Um you folks, you know, I was I was wondering if I was going to go there today and and I think I will. Um and if you'll just indulge me a minute. You know, we talk a lot about service and service to
013our country and and what does that mean, right? I hope all of our veterans understand that your service is going to be the lynch pin that keeps this country together. There's a lot of talk today about just kind of how things are going in the world and especially here in the United States of America. And uh for good or for bad, we're here and we will continue to be here and we will continue to thrive and we will continue to be the great country that we are. For all of our differences and for everything that we find ourselves arguing about, there is one thing that we can all pretty much all of us rally around and that is the service that you provided for our country. the sacrifice of of time, the sacrifice of your
014families, the sacrifice um the ultimate sacrifice that some people paid in order to promulgate the values that make this country the greatest country on earth and the greatest country this earth has ever known. It is still a great experiment and you know we don't have everything all worked out nor will we not tomorrow, not a hundred years from now. But the point is that we keep trying. That's the point. But again, I want to bring it back to the fact that there are a few things it seems like today we can agree on. But again, your efforts, your sacrifice, your service is one thing that holds us all together. And I hope you understand that. And I hope you realize that. And I hope you feel that in your bones because it's special. It's special.
015So on behalf of the town of Ashlin, thank you for everything that you've done, not just in uniform, but out of uniform, but especially on Veterans Day. Thank you for the for the sacrifice that you've made in service of our country. We have a lot of veterans here from all different branches. Um, and so I would just like to take a moment right now to identify each branch and uh ask if you did have the honor and privilege of serving in that branch, if you'd please stand up and be recognized, I'd appreciate it. And uh, we'll start with the United States Army. Do we have any Army veterans here? Please stand up. All right. Thank you. Thank you for your service. Um, any Navy veterans here? >> Yeah. Thank you, folks. Yeah. See, Bob. Bob.
016Bob stood up there. Here we go. Including Gabe. Gabe's the only Navy veteran I know who can't swim. So, and he's very proud of that fact. Very proud of that fact. Any Air Force veterans here? >> Thank you. Um, do we have any Marines here? I know we got we got one. Do we have any Coast Guard vets here? Any Coasties? Yeah. I'm going to take a wild guess and say there's probably not too many Space Force vets here. Uh but if you are, please uh please be recognized. Um and if not, thank you for your service if you're not here. U I also want to recognize our police and fire department who are here helping out. Uh thank you very much men and women of our uh public safety departments doing an excellent job
017also in the service of of our town and our country. Um we're really honored today to have our guest speaker uh retired Judge Michael Fabri um who served with the United States Air Force from 1972 to 1976 as a nuclear missile electronic technician and instructor. that you probably have some stories my friend you know and he is here today as part of our celebration and uh I would ask you all to please join me in welcoming him up to the podium. >> Well, welcome. Good afternoon. Thank you for for having me. This is truly an honor. I was going to start with what Mike did about having everybody recognize uh who they were uh and to stand as veterans, but we've already done that. So, thank you all for your your service. And when I
018refer to veterans and and military members throughout my brief, hopefully brief remarks here, have in mind that I'm also talking about the families behind that as well as the agencies and other community members that are out there such as the Veterans Administration, the State Department of Veterans Services, and others that support veterans. Uh certainly the the the soldiers and the veterans are the ones that bore the brunt of the the time and effort in the ser in their service to their country. But we have to remember that there are families behind every one of them. And there are community members. Fortunately, there are families when they left, families, those who came back. And then there were the community members and agencies that support them after they return. Uh it sort of dawned on me the
019other day that I don't think I ever looked up the word veteran or what the the root of the the word is. I I I I like to know where words come from. So, I looked up veteran and um bear with me and no disrespect intended, but the word veteran means old or experienced. And uh uh it was I was kind of taken a back, but I checked a couple different uh dictionaries and it said the same thing. And it really has a Latin root and vet vetus or veteranis. Um, it was used um back as far as 1500 and maybe even back further with with the Robins when it first became associated because the term the general term veteran isn't necessarily associated with military service, but it first became associated with military service. It
020looks like around the 1500s in in Europe. So, it's it's actually the term has a recent history as being associated with military service. I'm going to go through some numbers first um that I had in my head, but I also had to look up some of them. Um and these are uh approximates. I've used a couple different sources, but total number of served um or had. So, the first number I give you for each war is going to be the number that served and the number that were killed or injured during the wartime. Starting with the Revolutionary War, 217,000 uh men at least back until I think the Mexican war. Uh although there were some women scattered about there. Unfortunately, many women these days, but 217 thousand served in the Revolutionary War and about 10,000
021were killed and or injured. War of 1812 and I'm I'm skipping over some of the smaller conflicts, but War of 1812, 286, with 7,000 killed or injured. Mexican war. This is a pretty astonishing number. Uh 79 80,000 uh that served during that war and 17,000 were killed. And that was almost 20% of those who served. Civil War was a pretty big um number as well. 3.2 million served and as many as 700,000 died or uh were injured. Spanishame War, 306,000 and 4,000 killed or injured. World War I 4.2 2 million served, 310,000. Now, that was in a compressed period of time. That was a 2-year period. So, those numbers are pretty staggering. World War II, 16.2 million and 1 plus million Americans gave their lives or injured during that conflict. Korea, 5.7 million and 150,000
022killed or injured. And these last, the next two, Korean, Vietnam in particular, there are still many, many unaccounted for, killed in action, missing in action. Korea, 5.7 million. Any Korean War veterans here? We're starting to lose them at incredible rate. I've got those numbers here in a moment. Uh, Vietnam War era veterans here, right? Plenty of those. Anybody? World War II veterans. We've got a few of those. And, uh, post uh 911, Iran, Iraq, uh and post 911. Excellent. Thank you. So, we've got uh at least a few of each reflective of our our nation. Uh Korea 5.7 150,000 I think I've said that. Vietnam 8.7 million uh served, 240,000 killed or injured. Desert Storm, Desert Shield, or Iraq, Iran, depending upon how you uh call it, 2.2 2 million and 2500 fortunately a much
023smaller number and then the global bleed global war on terror similar 2.5 million about 7500 and notice post Vietnam the and I think this is attributed to what I think Clary might have been talking about how warfare has changed and it's much more technical much more targeted fewer civilian casualties and the like but nonetheless uh have resulted in deaths and and injuries the number of living veterans left in the United States. Uh we had no World War I veterans. I remember when I got out of the service, I met somebody from the SpanishAmerican War. And I'm saying to myself, "Oh my god, is that that was in a book someplace, but they were still alive in 1976 and a fair number of World War I. U they're all gone. We're down to 66,000 approximately World
024War II veterans. And I think by the early 2030s, we won't have any more World War II veterans alive. Korea, there's still about 2 million. In Vietnam, there were about 7 million veterans. Iran, Iraq, got 5.5 billion. Global war and terror about 800,000. Uh so a total of only about 14 million left uh surviving. And um in terms of the number of uh service people in uniform currently, it's somewhere between 3 and 3.5 million. That's less than 1% of our population. So think of that out there, ladies and gentlemen who serve. We are rare. Certainly rare birds indeed. In terms of the number of veterans dying each day, World War II, 131 we lose every day. Korea about 600. Vietnam about 400. And then Iran, Iraq, and uh post 911 veterans. The number obviously is
025much smaller mainly because they're younger veterans. But we lose about 20 a day and most of those to suicide unfortunately. And these are staggering numbers if you think of it. and some many will say they're unnecessary but that does tell the story about what our nation is willing to sacrifice for its continued existence. In all about 45 million uh individuals have served in the United States military since the revolutionary war and about 2.5 million have died and the number of people that have been born and died is about a half so about 500 million uh over those 250 years. So roughly 10% um have served and less than 1% have died. Nonetheless, staggering numbers. Uh Mary wanted me to talk a little bit about my journey. Um usually don't talk about it although to my
026family and kids. Not that I'm afraid to talk about it, but I don't like to talk about myself that much, but I told her I would share a little bit of my story in the context of I think my story is not unlike many veterans in there. And I'd ask you to think about your own story as as we talk about it. why you decided to join, what you did. Uh I was talking with is it Richard the veteran service officer here earlier. Um and he's a Vietnam vet. Thank you for serving. Um I know you'll know this term and other veterans out there might know the term reth rear echelon MF. And we used to joke about me as an air force person particularly state in states side particularly working on the ground in
027nuclear silos and the other air force uh veterans all due respect many of us were refs um and we would we would joke about how well you know we were sort of in the background but uh if we were called then things were getting getting rough. Our stories joined with some sort of spark and my spark I think was a combination of things. I grew up in the 60s. Uh, I love science. I love nature. That type of stuff. I was just mesmerized with the whole space stuff going on in the 60s. Others may in this room may have remembered that. It really was just a fascinating time. Um, I wanted to be an astronaut. Um, most of the actually the first seven astronauts were all veterans. Uh, three Navy, three Air Force and one
028Marine was in there as well, John Glenn, which we know. Um, so I think that was a big uh connection for me. I had an uncle who was uh David reserve. Um, and um, that was another that was another piece. But then I think the turmoil of the 60s, watching watching everything that went on in the 60s, particularly the Vietnam War, uh, the turmoil in this country, it it told me that I I wanted to serve. I tried to get in the US Air Force Academy and my daughter reminds me this of every day because she got in 33 years after I wasn't able to get in. Um I find it ironic that the reason why I didn't get into the Air Force Academy was one of the things that caused me uh to not
029get a an appointment there. Although I went through the process, passed all the physical stuff, got the congressional uh nominations and the like, but my English SAT score was too low. And then I end up in the legal field in the justice system, right? Where communication and reading and writing is so important. I don't know how that happened. I guess it turned it around. But I was offered to seek the a slot with the prep school, but being 17 years was a little bit young and stupid, I said, I'm going to go active duty. I'll show them. Uh but the plan was to maybe maybe reapply. Um, so I did go active duty and um I ended up uh uh down in Blackland Air Force Base, Texas the summer of 1972.