Lyme Honors Those Who Serve

LYME, CT – Lyme residents gathered at the Veterans Memorial outside Town Hall Wednesday morning to mark Veterans Day, beginning with the tolling of a bell in recognition of the armistice that ended fighting in World War I on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

Hosted annually by the Lyme Veterans Committee, this year’s ceremony honored citizen soldiers, from militiamen of the Revolutionary War to a local reservist who recently returned from deployment.

The reservist, Connecticut Army National Guard Specialist Thomas Moore, laid a ceremonial wreath in front of the granite memorial. 

Lyme Veterans Committee member and former First Selectman David Lahm pointed out Moore’s fire department uniform, noting that military service is often accompanied by other forms of public service. 

The audience of several dozen residents applauded Moore and the members of the fire company, who are led by Chief John C.L. Evans. 

A bell, tolled by Evans 11 times to commemorate the anniversary of the armistice, was affixed to a Lyme Fire Company firetruck.

Lahm, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, introduced guest speaker Dana Seero, a retired U.S. Army Reserve captain from Massachusetts. The two served together in a cavalry squadron in Germany, according to Lahm. 

Seero’s address focused on four Connecticut citizen soldiers of the Revolutionary War: Gen. David Wooster, who died at age 66 fighting British forces in Danbury in 1777; Gen. Israel Putnam, a celebrated veteran of the French and Indian War who helped lead American forces at the Battle of Bunker Hill; William Ledyard, who commanded the defense of Fort Griswold in Groton against a vastly larger British force in 1781 and was killed after attempting to surrender; and Joseph Plumb Martin, who enlisted in the Connecticut militia at age 15 and served throughout the war, including the winter at Valley Forge and the siege of Yorktown.  

“These soldiers and Americans in general all began the war thinking of themselves as British-subjected Americans,” he said. “At some time during the war, they began to see themselves as American, as distinct from British subjects, and as the founders of a new nation.” 

The ceremony ended with a final salute to Lyme veterans who died since last Veterans Day:

John Joseph Ososkie (April 16, 1964 – July 2, 2026) – U.S. Army
Russell K. Shaffer (April 12, 1933 – July 18, 2026) – U.S. Navy
Gerald D. Laubach (Jan. 21, 1926 – Aug. 31, 2026) – U.S. Navy, World War II
William Gregory Sr. (May 6, 1927 – Aug. 7, 2026) – U.S. Navy Seabees, World War II
John (Ray) Kozlowski (March 18, 1944 – Sept. 6, 2026) – U.S. Army Medical Corps