WWII Vets Re-Memorialized

For decades Ann Wiel and her mother would walk by the memorial monument to the neighborhood dead of World War II in tiny Triangle Park at the intersection of Mechanic and Lawrence streets. The name of her uncle, Edward Marino, the first local boy killed, was inscribed there.

Then suddenly three years ago it was gone. Stolen.

Now, as Veterans Day approaches, a replacement monument is back.

Wiel and a handful of vets and officials were on hand in the park Thursday afternoon to rededicate the replacement memorial.

It was a day that reminded some of the rain of D‑Day, June 6, 1944.

The officials included Mayor John DeStefano, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and Bob Fodero of the Mayor’s Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee.

“The memorial may appear to be small, but the symbolism is huge, honoring men of the neighborhood,” said Fodero.

The day belonged to World War II vets, including Sal Nero. Nero served as a gunner on a B‑24 bomber in the Pacific. His brother Mario Nero was an infantryman who was killed in Germany tragically only two weeks before the end of the war in Europe.

The old monument was on the western side of the triangle, a pole with framed box attached. The new one is at the apex facing south. Around a central grey rock, individual bricks of granite are inscribed with the names of the dead.

Sal Nero, along with Marie Notarino, led the charge with city and veterans officials to restore the monument. Sal Nero said that he is pleased with the new memorial. To date only his brother and Edward Marino have their names on the replacement monument.

Click here for a Register article on Notarino and Nero’s campaign after discovering the monument had vanished.

As plans for the replacement evolved, Notarino said, all the officials with whom she spoke told her they could not track down all the names on the original monument.

Roman Gensicki, another World War II vet, who had worked in a military hospital unit on Okinawa, had a vivid memory of the plaque as well. ​“When I was in the service, my sister sent me the picture and said, ​‘Your name is on the plaque at State and Lawrence,’” he recalled.

To everyone’s surprise Gensicki produced a small, yellowing snapshot, a close up of the plaque.

Marie Notarino approached, as did others, peering at the small picture.

“There’s Art Guida. And Bart Guida, who became mayor of New Haven,” said Ed Flynn.

Flynn had come by with a photograph of a wooden memorial, now also gone, from Morris Cove, he said. The one in Triangle Park must have looked like it, he said.

Sal Nero said he was pleased that the new monument is erected, but not fully happy, because so many other names have not yet been restored.

Notarino took the photo from Gensicki and said, ​“This is going right to Secretary [of Defense] Hegel,”

Her intention, she said, is to get all the names that were on the original reinscribed on the new.

DeLauro said that that the desecration or theft of veterans’ memorials is a problem she will try to address in law.

“This is a testament to valor. When one [memorial] is stolen, it’s more than theft. It’s an assault on pride and dignity. I introduced a bill with [Sen.]Chris Murphy to make stealing veterans’ memorials a federal crime,” she said.