West Hartford’s annual Veterans Day ceremony was held at the Connecticut Veterans Memorial at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2015.

By Ronni Newton

The Town of West Hartford paid tribute to all of its veterans Wednesday morning in a ceremony at the Connecticut Veterans Memorial that included a heartfelt speech by U.S. Army Lt. Col. (Ret.) Dr. Michael Gutman about why he joined the service and how being deployed changed him.

Gutman, who was chosen by the American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96 as guest speaker for the 2015 ceremony, is a trained and board-certified emergency medicine physician who was born in Israel, grew up in Canada, and moved to West Hartford in 1995 when he became an emergency room physician at St. Francis Hospital.

Gutman told the dozens who braved the cold, raw weather to attend the ceremony, that war and his experiences in Iraq and Bosnia now have a surreal quality. “These so-called adventures are tinged with nuanced sadness and a far healthier respect for that seemingly cliched phrase ‘the horrors of war.'”

When 9-11 happened, Gutman said, he knew war would ensue. “I knew I could contribute my expertise as an emergency physician to help our soldiers who would certainly be thrown into harm’s way,” he said, and on June 4, 2002, Gutman enlisted and became an officer in the U.S. Army.

“You might ask yourself what led me, who led a relatively comfortable safe life in suburban America to go to war,”  Gutman said. “The reason I joined is because I felt that I was going to contribute to the defense of my birthplace Israel and my adopted countrires U.S. and Canada … against an enemy who believed in an ideology that was antithetical to our values, ideals, and way of life.”

Whether you agree that a particular war is correct is a matter of politics, Gutman said. “I only speak to you of what drives our soldiers to join and stay in the military.”

Gutman said he was changed by each deployment, especially the last in 2008 when he was Chief of the Emergency Department in the 345th Combat Support Hospital Mosul, Iraq, the one remaining hot-spot at the time. “No amount of training could have prepared me,” he said.

“We formed these very intense relations,” Gutman said, as the soldiers were united in their shared misery and unique experiences. “It was all very strange and wonderful stuff for this little intellectual Jewish doctor who had never held a gun before he joined the U.S. Army,” he said.

Gutman shared several stories from his final deployment, heart-wrenching tales of life and death that he experienced in that final assignment, including the death of Major John Pryor, a 42-year-old trauma surgeon from Pennsylvania who had arrived in Mosul just two weeks earlier.

There is nothing like being in a combat zone, Gutman said, where you know that all the other soldiers have your back. “What distinguishes these people from the civilian world the most is not their training, education or intelligence, but the fact that it is combined with a refreshing sense of forthrightness and earnestness,” said Gutman.

In addition to Gutman, several West Hartford and state officials spoke at the Veterans Day ceremomy.

Town Council Minority Leader Denise Hall said that Wednesday’s program at the Veterans Memorial is “just one small spark in the flame of pride that should burn across the nation today and every single day,” highlighting the moving ceremony at Charter Oak International Academy earlier in the morning and the lunch for veterans planned at the American Legion at noon.

This year is the agreed-upon anniversary of the Vietnam War, and Hall paid special tribute to those veterans, who sadly were not treated well upon their return, she said.

State Rep. Brian Becker spoke about what the state is doing for veterans – with important steps taken to end chronic homelessness among veterans, improve services to female veterans, and to improve conditions and bring a Veterans Day ceremony to the state’s Veterans Home in Rocky Hill.

State Sen. Beth Bye spoke about how “humble many of our veterans are” about what they did for our country. “We do it for the team,” Bye said veterans have told her.

“It’s always the team that allows them to face that danger and that team supports each other when the battle is over,” she said. That’s why so many veterans come back and devote themselves to public service, where they can make a difference.

Mayor Scott Slifka cut his speech short as a cold steady rain began to fall, but not before he mentioned his morning spent at the Veterans Day ceremony at Duffy Elementary School where his daughter is in second grade.

Although Slifka’s daughter knew that her mother, Noelle, had been in the U.S. Army, she did not realize that meant she was a veteran. In fact, when Slifka’s daughter brought home a form to fill out to invite her mom to the ceremony, it only had a space for “father, grandfather, and friend.”

Slifka also said that he believes many of the divisions in this country could be helped if more people served their country.

“There are only 1 percent of us that face these horrors and 1 percent of us that even have the chance of experiencing what Dr. Gutman said today.” Slifka reiterated a point he has made in the past, that he believes “we need to reinstitute the draft with some form of compulsory national service, and adopt as a national policy that no military action can be taken unless the budget specifically includes provisions for the healthcare and housing of all those who serve.”

“Voices of Bristow” sang the National Anthem at Wednesday’s ceremony.

The ceremony concluded with the placement of a memorial wreath by Slifka and Fradette, assisted by two local veterans, and the sounding of Taps by Peter Roe of the American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96.

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