ARC Community Calendar Sat, 19 May 2012 00:04:52 +0000 86400 ARC Community Calendar Special Memorial Day Weekend Event The ANA Patriot Squadron, in conjunction with the Loyal Order of Moose, will host a free public Memorial Day observance at the Shea Memorial Grove on Saturday May 26, 2012 between 10 AM and 2 PM. The Shea Memorial Grove is located on Shea Drive in SouthField on the site of former Naval Air Station South Weymouth in Weymouth, Massachusetts. All are welcome and active duty, reserve, and veteran military personnel are strongly encouraged to wear their uniforms.

The primary focus of the Memorial Day observance will be the Afghan/Iraq Moving Memorial Wall sponsored by Yarmouth Moose Lodge #2270. The Afghan/Iraq Moving Memorial Wall is a portable war memorial, similar in concept to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC, that carries the names of all American service members killed in action during the first Persian Gulf War and in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. There are presently about 6,000 names painted on the Afghan/Iraq Moving Memorial Wall and it is updated, as necessary, on a monthly basis.

Yarmouth Moose Lodge members will set up the Afghan/Iraq Moving Memorial Wall at the Shea Memorial Grove, which is a small park conceived by Captain Robert A. Duetsch, designed by the Navy Public Works Department and built by Navy Sea Bees just before the base closed down in 1997, to perpetuate the memory of NAS South Weymouth and historic NAS Squantum. The park is named after CDR John J. “Jack” Shea, a local Navy Reserve pilot affiliated with NAS Squantum, who was killed in action when the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Wasp was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Solomon Islands during WW2. The Shea Memorial Grove honors CDR Shea and the 32 Medal of Honor recipients from Massachusetts’ Norfolk and Plymouth counties. The centerpiece of the park is an actual Douglas A-4B Skyhawk jet mounted on a pylon. This specific aircraft was actually based at NAS South Weymouth during the 1960s and was maintained and flown on weekends by local members of the Navy and Marine Corps reserve.

Another important part of the Memorial Day observance will be an appearance by several hundred motorcycles from the "Rolling Thunder" motorcycle club affiliated with Braintree Moose Lodge #413. The motorcyclists will assemble at the Moose Lodge parking lot at 175 Howard Street in Braintree. They will depart at 10:30 AM and are expected to arrive at the Shea Memorial Grove around 11.

After the motorcyclists arrive, a ceremony that will last until about noon will be conducted at the park. The ceremony will begin with the parading of the colors by an honor guard composed of local American Legion and VFW members. This will be followed by speeches presented by local dignitaries and will conclude with a traditional rifle salute by the honor guard. For more information about the events at the Shea Memorial Grove contact Sean Maloney of the Loyal Order of Moose at 781-339-9910 or Millie of the ANA Patriot Squadron at 781-587-9337.

The ANA Patriot Squadron’s Shea Field Naval Aviation Historical Museum, which is located just down the road from the park inside the former base gymnasium (Shea Fitness Center) at 495 Shea Memorial Drive, will also be open to the public that day. The museum serves as a repository for photographs, documents, and various other artifacts associated with NAS South Weymouth and NAS Squantum and will be tended between 9 AM and 2 PM by members of the ANA Patriot Squadron who are either veterans who were assigned to NAS Squantum or NAS South Weymouth or civilian historians who are familiar with the backgrounds of both bases. The museum will be closed for about an hour between 11 AM and noon during the ceremony at the Shea Memorial Grove. Admission to the museum is free.

The ANA Patriot Squadron is a Boston-area affiliate of the Association of Naval Aviation that is composed of veterans and civilians who are interested in preserving the heritage of NAS Squantum and NAS South Weymouth. The group operates and maintains the Shea Memorial Grove and the Shea Field Naval Aviation Historical Museum at the SouthField real estate development on the site of former NAS South Weymouth in Weymouth, Massachusetts. The museum is presently open to the public from 9 to 11 AM on the last Saturday of every month, on other special occasions, and by appointment. Admission to the museum is free. The ANA Patriot Squadron actively seeks new members and donations of photographs and other artifacts pertaining to the history of NAS Squantum or NAS South Weymouth for the museum. For more information about the ANA Patriot Squadron, the Shea Memorial Grove, or the Shea Field Naval Aviation Historical Museum visit the group’s web site at http://www.anapatriotsquadron.org or send e-mail to inquiries@anapatriotsquadron.org.


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