Published May 5, 2021

By MARK SARDELLA

WAKEFIELD — Starting in mid-May, Wakefield will be honoring some of its most distinguished military heroes with banners hung from the light poles in the downtown.

The “Hometown Heroes” banners will be interspersed with the banners provided by Wakefield Main Streets hanging along Main Street from the Rockery to Water Street. 

Town Councilor Edward Dombroski said that he has been working with the Veterans Advisory Board on the project, which will initially honor about 112 veterans but will be expanded to include more honorees in the future.

“This was a team effort,” Dombroski said, “with great assistance from Veterans Advisory Board Member Jay Pinette and Town Administrator Steve Maio.”

The two-sided banners will features photos of two veterans on each side along with the honoree’s branch of service over a colorful red and blue background.

“It is really remarkable to see those images so vividly presented on these banners — they’re stunning,” Dombroski said. “Seeing these images, you really need to take a moment to appreciate the magnitude of the sacrifice of these brave service members who called Wakefield home.”

Dombroski said that the banners will be hung as soon as they are available. The hope is to get them displayed by Armed Services Day on May 15 and leave them up until June 1, when banners recognizing 2021 Wakefield Memorial High School graduates are expected to be hung. The Hometown Heroes banners will return in the following months. 

Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio noted that the initial batch of banners will feature the veterans killed in action whose photos lined the walls of the old Galvin Middle School Auditorium and are currently in glass display cases at the new Galvin Middle School. Those photos and images are of Wakefield’s fallen heroes from World War I (and possibly one veteran of the Spanish-American War) through Operation Iraqi Freedom.

According to Veterans Advisory Board chairman Jay Pinette, the images that will appear on the first batch of banners are the ones that were remastered several years ago for the GMS display.

“We took the photos and frames from the old GMS and had them repaired, scanned, etc.,” Pinette said. “I went through them to assign names and branches of service to the photos.”

The goal, Maio said, is to get more photos of Wakefield veterans and get them on banners as time goes on. The ever-growing collection of banners are expected to be hung at various times throughout the year along Main Street.

Maio said that the Veterans Advisory Board will at some point announce a process for getting a veteran so honored.

Dombroski sees the Hometown Heroes banners as a project that everyone in town can appreciate and support.

“Our town has a distinguished history of military service going back many generations,” he said. “It is my hope that these banners will serve as a modern-day source of tremendous community pride for many years to come.”