Speaker Delivers A Hometown Story On Veterans Day

 HARWICH – Monday was a day of reflection and praise for veterans who served the country with courage, commitment and sacrifice to maintain freedom.

The keynote speaker at the Veterans Day ceremony held in Veterans Memorial Park in Evergreen Cemetery, Retired Chief Petty Officer Robert L. Parr, Jr., drew local connections relating to his decision to spend more than 20 years serving the country in the United States Navy. Parr spoke of the excursion that led him to a career in the Armed Forces and to proudly carry the banner with patriotic pride.

It started with his stepfather, the late Sgt. Donald F. Ryder, a Korean War POW for more than two years. Parr said Ryder was the only locally born native Cape Cod POW to return home from the war. Harwich threw a parade on Ryder’s return in 1953. Ryder was a longtime public servant, working in the harbor and shellfish departments for many years.       

 Parr said it was Ryder who taught him about the sea and instilled a bit of patriotism in him.

 “Come back with me in time over half a century ago,” Parr said. “It is 1973. I have an academic past of poorly attended classes and a total lack of proficiency. I also have two years under the watchful guidance of a stepfather who earned the right to be called a true American a hundred times over.” 

Parr said that in his teenage years, he was uncertain about his future and made the transition from Harwich High School to the newly opened Cape Cod Regional Technical High School in his senior year, graduating with a major in electronics.

Military recruiters were interested in high school graduates with experience in electronics. Parr initially signed with the United States Marine Corps with a guarantee of attending aviation school, but later altered his plans to attend the Navy Aviation School in the Great Lakes.

There were some difficult times ahead, but Parr said the technical school experience and persistence took him to California to learn how to fix helicopters. Parr added that he wanted to see the world but missed a six-month tour in the Indian Ocean on the USS Midway by one day.

He began rethinking his enlistment and over the next year had problems with a squadron commander. Another squadron took him under their wings and he developed wings of his own. 

“I was reinstated and on my way to success and a career in the Navy that I could be proud to be a part of,” he said. “My career would take me around the world. I would maintain aircraft on a dangerous flight deck coming close to death several times.”

The Navy gave him the opportunity to visit ports, help at orphanages, tour historic sights, learn to fly, and build a family as he progressed through the ranks, he said. His final tour was on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which brought the Army to Haiti.  

“When the community comes together to thankfully reflect on the contributions of veterans, those old memories come to the fore and force again a well of tears. That is what Veterans Day means to me. Mine is only one story. Every veteran has their own. Each is part of the magnificent maze of history,” Parr said.

Parr praised the commitment of those who served in the Armed Forces, pointing out only 6 percent of Americans are veterans, and this day provides the opportunity to recognize and thank those who have served. 

“But what is Veterans Day to that 6 percent?” Parr asked. “Of course, it is a day that warms our hearts to know that our sacrifices have been and continue to be appreciated, that the swelling pride within our chests that often rises to the level of tears in our eyes is well supported by a country that deeply cares about those sacrifices.

“It is my hope that we may always hold in high esteem the service of the six percenters,” said Parr.

 Select Board member Donald Howell presented a proclamation from the select board during the ceremony paying tributes to veterans throughout the nation.

Master of Ceremonies LT. Col. Chip Carroll said that while people may have differing opinions about the presidential election, the freedom to speak for or against the results must be attributed to the veterans who defend the constitution of the United States.