More than 200 gathered on God’s Acre in New Canaan Monday for the annual town Veterans Day ceremony. The crisp fall morning drew dozens of New Canaan first responders, town officials, residents and of course veterans and their families.
Family was the theme of this year’s ceremony, which featured a speech from the perspective of a military mother. The Advertiser’s Julie Butler spoke about what it’s like having a son serving overseas in the U.S. Marines.
Butler is the mother of U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Blake Flannery. She is the first woman to be the featured speaker at the annual New Canaan ceremony.
Flannery, who is a team leader for 1st Platoon, Force Reconnaissance Co., based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., is a 2001 graduate of New Canaan High School. He has served three tours in Iraq since 2003.
On Monday, Butler spoke of the anxiousness that comes with being the mother of a Marine serving in the Middle East and she copes.
“I don’t belong to any particular religion,” she told the crowd on God’s Acre, “but during deployments I have nevertheless entered the sanctuaries of a number of churches in town and hit my knees and prayed. And that is how I do it.”
She recounted a story of Flannery’s calling recently to tell her his most recent redeployment back to the Middle East was canceled and how relieved she sounded on the phone contrasted by how disappointed he was.
“He is happy to be a warrior and he is happy to serve his country,” Butler said Monday. “He is happy with his choice of career, and therefore, I am happy for him. That’s all we want as parents — for our offspring to be happy doing what they’re doing.
“There is still a little bit of time left until Blake retires from the Corps — seven years — so I know at least a fourth deployment is in the cards,” Butler continued. “And I will get through it the way I have described getting through the previous three — with faith, hope, friends, family and lots and lots of chocolate.
“God bless all of my fellow military parents, the military families. God bless all the spouses of those currently serving in the Armed Forces, as well as those spouses who endured the deployments of their loved ones in the recent and not-so-recent past. God bless all the veterans gathered here today in the heart of New Canaan for this ceremony. And, of course, God bless the one of the few, the proud, my Marine.”
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