BRATTLEBORO — I am honored to be speaking on this special day when we honor the memory of those who have given their lives for their country.
I am particularly honored to share the story of two of these heroes. They lived and died 100 years from each other, and they exemplify the stories of countless other men and women who have served and sacrificed so that we can be free.
The first of these young men, John Steele Tyler, was born in a farmhouse in Brattleboro in 1843. Though John's family moved to upstate New York when he was very young, he returned frequently to visit his grandmother, who lived in the corner house behind the Brattleboro Common.
John's excellent education included some basic military training and, at age 15, he returned to Brattleboro to apprentice at his uncle's law office. He lived with his grandmother until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.
He immediately volunteered for the Union army and actually raised a company of 100 local men for the 2nd Vermont Regiment. His men elected him to be their first lieutenant.
John was a superb solider and quickly rose through the ranks. During the many battles of the 2nd Regiment of the 1st Vermont Brigade, he escaped serious injury, until early May, 1864, during the Battle of the Wilderness.
At that time, almost exactly 150 years ago, while he was lieutenant colonel and second in command of his regiment (1,000 soldiers), he took over command when his colonel was badly injured.
During the next two hours of intense combat, he led his regiment until a severe thigh wound caused him to fall. He died of his wounds two weeks later, joining 1,233 other Vermonters who fell that day.
His last visit to the family home and to his home community occurred shortly before his burial. I want to read some words said about him at the time of his death.
This, by then-governor Fred Holbrook, whose house sits at the other end of the town common:
“I knew Col. Tyler intimately and was fondly attached to him for his many manly traits. And I fully believed he would make a man in the best sense of the word.
“I will remember his patriotic enthusiasm in raising a company for the war and faithfulness and perseverance with which he developed every day as a soldier.”
A fellow officer said, “Tyler did not know what fear was, and there was not an officer or man in the regiment that worshipped him but almost.”
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The second young officer, John Fitzgibbons, was born in 1945 in Wakefield, Mass., the oldest of 11 children. A natural student and athlete, his leadership in high school was such that for two years running, the student body elected him as the outstanding leader of the school. (I understand from a sister that he never told his parents of these honors.)
He went to Boston College, where he joined the ROTC and chose the infantry as his area of concentration. He was later commissioned as a first lieutenant, the same rank with which John Steele Tyler began his army career.
Three months after he was married, he was deployed to Vietnam, where he was assigned to be a platoon leader in a rifle company of 1/7 Battalion of the First Air Cavalry Division.
It was at that time that we met, when he was 23 and I was 27.
I had been assigned to be the battalion surgeon of John's battalion. What an honor and privilege it was to have been involved in the care of these 900 men, 90 of whom died while I was with them. I had never before or since experienced such bravery, camaraderie, and brotherhood among men.
John broke his ankle while jumping from a helicopter shortly after arriving in Vietnam and, while I cared for him and after socializing for many evenings, we became fast friends.
We shared our anxieties, but more often, we shared our plans for after the war. John frequently talked about the future for him and his new young bride.
I released him back to full duty just before Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, 1968, and on that very night he and six other members of this platoon were killed in a North Vietnamese Army ambush.
I had wanted to connect with his wife and other members of his family when I returned home the following September, but it did not happen. For many years I felt guilty about this, but on July 4, 2013, a friend who knew of John's story called me about an article on the front page of The Boston Globe about some misplaced medals returned 30 years later to the family of John Fitzgibbons.
I immediately found the phone number of his sister Joyce, who was mentioned in the article, and she was so happy to hear from a former friend of her brother's during his time in Vietnam.
Before I actually met his family Joyce sent me an email about her relationship with John:
“I just adored him as a big brother - we were 18 months apart. He was wonderful to me and my sisters and all our girlfriends. They were all in love with him, and he was so kind to them all.
He seemed to know instinctively that at that impressionable age of 14-16, a rude remark can be devastating. He drove us everyplace until I got my license, and he was such a gentle man, and very protective of me.
“The very course of our lives was changed because of one death. John was such a pivotal person in all our family. A born leader, something a large family of 11 needs, and his type of leadership could have been instrumental in guiding our family to find the best path in life.
“As it was, we were so blessed, but I know having John in our lives would have made everything better.
“Finally, remember him as we remember him. He will always be young, handsome, and smiling in our memory.”
The meeting with John's mom and two of his sisters last December was wonderful for all of us, and they received me as a son and brother to them. It was as if John's death occurred yesterday.
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So there you have it: the story of two young heroes who died 100 years apart, serving their country and helping to protect all of us.
If each were here with us today, I think they would:
• want to thank you for honoring their memory. They would say that they were proud to have served and that they did the best they could to satisfactorily complete their missions while at the same time try to return the men under their commands safely back to their families.
I believe that if they had to serve again, they would not change a thing.
• urge us not to take life for granted, as it is fleeting, and they would ask us to fully take advantage of those freedoms for which they fought.
• ask us to love our country and do all we can to promote peace, starting in our own family and workplace, with kindness towards our fellow man.
• remember those men and women who have fought in all our wars, many returning with physical and emotional wounds that they continually bear.
• ask us not to forget all those still missing in action, and their families.
• ask us to honor all those gold-star moms and dads, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, children, and friends of all who did not return. Especially at this time, we remember the parents of Kyle Gilbert, who died in the Iraq war, the last hero from this community who died in combat.
• ask us all to pray for the protection and safe return of the countless men and women across the globe who have volunteered their service, often putting themselves in harm's way so that we may continue to live safely and be part of gatherings such as this in this great country of ours.
And, finally, they would ask you to look around at our men and women in uniform who would give their lives to protect us.
Let's give them a cheer!