Hey folks, it's Jonathan Bowen with Hub Edge Realty. How are you? I'm here at
Evergreen Cemetery in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Behind me is Route 138 and
on the other side of Route 138 is Town Spa Pizza; it's pretty famous around
here. So today is the Sunday before we observe Memorial Day and I've kind of
been thinking about Memorial Day, you know, more this year than ever before and
I just wanted to get some of my thoughts out to you. So, you know, first my story...
I was, I served in the, with the Navy Seabees, transferred over to the Army National
Guard, the Massachusetts Army National Guard,
I was with 101st Engineer Battalion in the Chelsea, Bridgewater and
Newburyport armories. Served, I started off as an enlisted person in the Navy as
a Constructionman Apprentice in the Navy Seabees and then I was a Private
First Class in the Army Corps of Engineers and then I went to OCS, Officer
Candidate School, down at Camp Edwards and got my commission, went back to
the 101st Engineers so this was from 1993 until 2000 and, I don't know, I
went on this thing called IRR, Inactive Ready Reserve, so I don't actually know
when my, I forget when my, you know, discharge date was but it was after
September 11th so, so anyway... Why didn't I stay in the service? Because I started
selling real estate in 1999, I had a listing on Antwerp Street in Milton and
I had to go and, go up to Fort Drum for 15 days with the Army National Guard and
I had told my clients, I said "Listen, I know this has been a very difficult sale,
I know that there are a lot of things going on but I have a commitment I have
to leave with the Army National Guard for 15 days".
This was before cell phones were so prevalent, I had one but, you know, the the
coverage and in the woods of, you know, upstate New York, you know, obviously I
didn't have any cell phone coverage so, so, you know, it was very very difficult,
I got back to the office, I worked at Jack Conway in Milton back then, my office
manager, Ron Scott, sat me down, almost fired me because my clients were really
upset and I don't blame them because selling your house is so important, it's
really one of the most important things that'll ever, that you'll ever do in
your life so, so, you know, I had to make a decision at that point what I was going
to do you know, I did commit to doing one weekend a month and 15 days a year, that
one week in a month, I'll never, was on a holiday weekend, so you got to realize
that, you know, if there was a holiday that month it was cutting out two
weekends of open houses for my client so that's really, you know, the reason I got
out of the service, I regret it some days, I don't know, you know, I'm still, still
have a lot of thoughts. So I still have a lot of friends who I served with, Eric
DiNoto is, I believe, I haven't spoken with him in a while, but I believe he's
still in the Massachusetts Army National Guard, we, we went to OCS together, he went
overseas. John Pitt, he's with the Indiana National Guard, I was with him at
Engineer Officer Basic Course out in out in, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri and he,
he's doing great, he's a Lieutenant Colonel in the Indiana National Guard, he
just finished a battalion command so, you know, I, I'm so happy for everybody who
I've served with and people who I've, you know, I don't know what happened, I've
served with so many people over the years, I mean, I don't know what happened
to really any of them. So, so Memorial Day, why, what is
Memorial Day? You know, Memorial Day is not, we're not celebrating anything, although
I'm really happy to talk about the people who I served with, we're not
celebrating anything because Memorial Day is a date of remembrance, we're
remembering the people who have died in service to our country, protecting our
country, so there's no "Happy Memorial Day", it's really nice to have a family
barbecue, maybe people have some drinks, but we're really, you know, people, you
know, the reason for this is a remembrance, okay...
Veterans Day is different, people sometimes get Memorial Day and Veterans
Day mixed up. Veterans Day is the day for people like me, people who have served,
you say, "Hey, you know, Happy Veterans Day" or, you know, "Thank you for helping and
thank you for serving". That's the difference between Memorial Day and
Veterans Day. A lot of people get them confused, okay? So, you know, I, my family
has a long history with the military, my father served in Vietnam, he was in the
9th Infantry Division, he was you know at Fort Riley, Kansas for a while he, before,
you know, he was deployed over to Vietnam, he was a heli... helicopter repairmen and
I think about my father because, you know, there were 50,000 plus soldiers and
sailors and basically service members who died over in Vietnam and, you know,
this, I was born in 1973 and, you know, this is, you know, he was over there
before I was even born so I'm lucky to even be alive standing here talking to
you because I'm a miracle, we're all miracles, you know, you know my father
easily could have been killed and he told me a story one time, he was up at
the top of a helicopter fixing the rotor and bullets started whizzing by his head
and he jumped right off the top of the helicopter, I mean that's, you know, that's
15 feet, you know, whatever it is, 20 feet, jumping off the top of the helicopter,
you know, that's serious business. He told me awful stories he, you know, he never
told me these stories until after I served in the military, told me stories
about picking up guys, and I know you don't
want to hear this, picking up guys' guts and putting their brains back in there, you know, I
mean, he, that was part of his job, he had to go into these battlefields and pick
up the wounded and the dead so, I mean, my dad has seen some real real real
terrible, awful stuff. I've had uncles and au.., not aunts, excuse me, uncles and cousins
who have served, I have a cousin who's in the Air Force right now, I've, you know
had family members serve in all the different branches. So, you know, my part
of my story, the closest I've ever gotten personally to war was on September 11th,
obviously, my, you know, 2001, I was a newly commissioned Lieutenant in the
Massachusetts Army National Guard, I was living in Sharon, Massachusetts. I had all
my TA-50 I don't think they call it TA-50 anymore, but I had all my TA-50
and I was ready to go, I was ready to you know go down to Ground Zero, is it was
later called, and I had two things that, you know, I had my heart and my head. My
heart said "Hey, go, go go go go go". My head said, "You know, you're just a First..." you
know, (garbled speech), I forget if I was a Second Lieutenant or a First
Lieutenant at the time, "You're just a Lieutenant..." I mean obviously I had the
the castle on my collar, this was engineering, I mean, this is what
we did, you know, we blew stuff up. I hate to even say it like that,
Jesus, excuse my French, but, you know, you know, this is what we did. We, we, you know, so
anyway, we, I decided, my head said to me "Do not go because they've got plenty of
people down there, you're just going to cause more chaos, there is nothing for
you to do down there". Um, so that was, that was my thinking at
the time. Do I have any right to even go down there because there was no direct
order from anybody telling me to go down there so, could have I even gotten in
trouble for just going down on my own volition? I don't know, I don't, I still
don't know those answers, you know, I, who knows, you know, so that
was the closest I ever came, you know, I of course I you know I know that 101st
Engineers went over to either Iraq or Afghanistan after September 11th but I
had already, you know, I had to make a decision, you know, what am I doing here?
So, so that's my personal story. I have not served overseas, you know, you know, do
I regret that, I don't know, you know, I'm no hero.
I would like to be a hero but, you know, I'm just a regular guy and all these
other guys are regular guys too, guys who have served and guys who have died, you
know, so I guess really the, how has Memorial Day touched me most directly?
Well, my daughter, her great-grandfather on her mother's side is a guy named
Captain Charles E. Higgins and he was in the Army during World War II, and he
went over to northern France a few days after D-Day and he was killed in battle
right outside of Saint-Lô and because of that my significant other's father,
Charles Higgins as well, he's not a "Jr.", he just left today, he's 75-years-old,
he just left back to Cleveland today and he never had his father, you know, he was a very
use of tiny baby and his father had been killed over in, over in France so, you
know, think about that, you know, not having your father or your mother, you know, I
just, you know, breaks my heart when I think about not only him but, you
know, all of these other people who have lost family members throughout,
throughout all of these wars that we've had, you know, and it, it just breaks my heart so,
yeah, and I guess it has directly affected my daughter in some way, she
probably never would have met her great-grandfather but who knows, you know,
who knows? So I just want you to take some time and think about, even if war
has not touched your family directly, most people you see around here, it has,
you know, it has touched their family maybe not this generation, maybe not the
generation before that but most likely war has touched your family and the
people who have helped to defend this country, two or three generations, four
generations, World War I, you know, the Civil War, there are so many, you know,
people who have died trying to help this country. So that's all I would like to
say to you. I appreciate your time, I know I get long-winded, so thank you, okay?
Thank you to all the families who have lost loved ones and, of course, thank you
to the people who have served, although, as we said, this is not the correct, I
don't think it's wrong to say that either but, you know that's all I have to
say. Listen, thank you very much for watching this and enjoy your Memorial
Day Weekend, I hope you have some fun, but you take a few minutes, maybe come by a
cemetery, I mean, like I'm doing here now, you know,
that's it. Thank you so much, have a good day okay. Bye-bye.
For more infomation >> Acadiana veterans arrive, begin tour of Washington, D.C. - Duration: 2:25. 
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