For John Haller, A Project Of Remembrance Concludes In Orleans

ORLEANS – The bikes came rolling down Academy Place from Main Street Oct. 9, each one coming to a stop next to Veterans Memorial Park. The site was the final stop of the day for John Haller and his friends, who together made visits to West Hartford, Conn., and Exeter, R.I. before arriving in Orleans.

 “We’re not sure if we’re going to New Hampshire or Vermont,” said Haller, a Maryland resident. “It’s getting cold.”

 For Haller, Veterans Memorial Park marked the end of an important project undertaken in the memory of his late brother, Army Command Sergeant Major Roger Haller, who died while serving in Iraq in 2007. Last week, John was presented with a memorial brick, one of 50 he paid for and had inscribed in tribute to his brother, one in each state.

 “I purchased the one in Maryland, at the Federalsburg Hometown (Veterans) Memorial,” he said. “And as I was driving home, I just thought to myself ‘Why can’t I get one in every state?’”

 Roger Haller was the youngest of five siblings. Born in Pittsburgh, he moved with his family to Maryland in 1972, John said.

 John and Roger attended college together in West Virginia, after which Roger moved to Virginia and joined the Virginia Army National Guard. He later moved again, this time to Maryland, and was transferred to the National Guard there.

 “He stayed with them until he was killed in Iraq,” he said.

 Roger was deployed to Iraq in December 2006. A month later, he was one of 12 who died in action on Jan. 20, 2007, when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed just north of Bagdhad. He and the 11 others who died in the crash are buried in Arlington, Va, John said.

 The effort to purchase bricks took two and a half months, John said. He searched online for veterans memorials in each state. When he found one, he “clicked on it, donated to it and bought a brick.” In New Hampshire, a local American Legion post paid for the brick.

“Massachusetts is the last state to be placed,” he said. “All the other states have been placed.”

Roger’s brick is one of many that will be set as part of ongoing efforts to renovate and beautify the park. Last week, Jon Fuller and Andrew deLory, members of the town’s Veterans and Memorial Day committee, joined Brian Sosner, president of Veterans Memorial Park at Academy Place, Inc., the nonprofit organization helping raise funds for the effort, in welcoming John and his friends to Orleans.

“We’re very glad you found us,” Sosner said.

Committee members gave the visitors an overview of the park’s history, including its origins as the site of the former Snow Library, which was destroyed by fire in the early 1950s.

“They tried to get water out of the Town Cove, salt water,” Fuller explained. “But the lines froze and they could not put the fire out.”

The library was soon rebuilt at its current location across from the park on Main Street, and the former site was repurposed as a “de facto” veterans memorial, Fuller said.

The committee and the nonprofit have been working in recent years to upgrade the park, including bringing new infrastructure and utilities to the site. Some existing memorials will be repointed, while new monuments are also planned, including separate ones for the Vietnam and Korean wars to replace the joint one that currently faces Main Street. 

In May 2023, $110,000 was approved through town meeting to bring irrigation improvements, electrical upgrades and loam and seeding to the downtown park. Fuller said that work is due to go out to bid soon.

“It took us two years to where we finally got the [request for proposals] for this,” he said.

The second phase of work involves the memorials, as well as the creation of new concrete walkways and memorial brick patios and a memorial marker recognizing the town’s Indigenous history. The park will also have benches and improved accessibility. The nonprofit is raising money to fund the memorial work, including through donations and the sale of memorial bricks. Sosner said he is hopeful that work on phase two will break ground in the spring.

“This is a beautiful spot,” John Haller said of the park.

When Roger’s brick is set down in the park, a piece of his memory will live on not only in Orleans, but across the country. John said there’s a “sense of accomplishment” in completing the effort.

“Not just for me, but recognizing all of our fallen veterans, particularly my brother, but all the other ones as well,” he said.

To purchase an inscribed memorial brick or see updated renderings of the renovated park, visit www.vetsparkacademyplace.org.