By Brian Govang
Post 158, Alternate Historian
The American Legion Coombs-Mountford Post 158 had its saluting team ready to go Monday in honor of our fallen soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen. We at the Post didn’t think that 10 people were a large group, so we held our saluting ceremony as planned while practicing safe distancing.
Gathering as a group in the Legion parking lot, we then split into two groups, one headed by Jack Lachance and the second headed by Armand Marcouillier. They then split the list of Lisbon cemeteries between them.
The first cemetery on Lachance’s list was Ridge Road Cemetery and we stopped at Chief Clifton Saywer Smith’s grave.
The next on the list was Lisbon Center Cemetery, where we stopped at the Robinson family plot.
The next place we stopped was Allen’s family grave in the Lisbon Cemetery. A flag was placed for each veteran in the family buried there.
Next on the list was St. Anne’s, and the next grave was Tommy Fields, a Lisbon hero who died in the Somalia action.
After the formal ceremony, I decided to go down to the oldest members grave, it was on Armand “Frenchy” Marcouillier’s list, but I’d been going to see him every year.
This was John Blake. He was buried in Blake’s Cemetery, and he was all alone. He was born before the U.S. independence, in 1752, and died before the Civil War, in1839. The Boy Scouts had revamped the cemetery to highlight Blake’s grave, so other graves may have been missed. He was a seaman in the US Navy before we became an official country.
TOP PHOTO: The saluting team is shown at Thomas Field’s grave, from left, Rene Dubois , Armand Marcouillier, Bradley Veilliuex, Dennis Pratt, Jack Lachance, Larry Hall, Post Commander Ronald Saindon and bugler Ralph Carter. (Brian Govang photo)