Watchfires - Chapter Newsletter
August
Special (PDF, 1.1 MB)
Summer 2008 (PDF, 1.5MB)
Late Spring 2008 (PDF, 2.2MB)
Spring 2008 (PDF, 1.71MB)
Feb 2008 (PDF, 669KB)
Special: Return to Vietnam, Part 2 (PDF, 3 MB)
Special: Return to Vietnam (PDF, 2M)
Winter 2007 (PDF, 1M)
Late Summer 2007 (PDF, 1M)
Summer 2007 (PDF, 930KB)
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Memorial Day
Watchfires
Watchfires date back to our country's first war and have been common to all wars since. General Washington used them to signal the ceasefire ending the Revolutionary War. Reference is made to the use of them during the Civil War, in the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." These fires, 21 feet square at the base and 21 feet high at the peak, were built in rows along the west shore of the Hudson River.
Since 1987, Rockland County's Vietnam Veterans have come together to build such fires according to the military regulations and specifications of the 1700's. Watchfires are built every year on May 30th, the traditional Memorial Day. They are lit at midnight and burn until dawn on Memorial Day, then refueled at dark and burn til midnight again. Veterans stand watch, changing shifts through the night, and day, and night, as they had a generation ago.
In Vietnam, the mountaintops were our base camps, a more secure area where watch was kept through the night, and a special watch kept when we had a patrol still out -- so the symbolism -- keeping vigil by the Watchfires for our fallen brothers, our patrol that has still not returned, and the patrols of past wars -- back to our country's first soldiers who fought along these shores.
Before the fire was lighted, a rifle with bayonet, boots, and a helmet were placed in a traditional ceremony to fallen brothers.
To commemorate a fallen warrior, an inverted weapon and bayonet -- a tool of war and an instrument of peace -- was placed in the ground to symbolically mark the spot where our friend had fallen.
A pair of polished jungle boots, fully laced, was placed at the base of the weapon to symbolize our brother's place on Earth, that he had fallen while standing up for liberty in the same manner as patriots of past wars who made the same supreme sacrifice.
Finally, the helmet was placed atop the weapon to protect our brother and friend. He would suffer no longer the pain of war.
We Remember Our Brothers
Keeping a Vigil for the Lost Patrol
In Memory of the men who never returned to Rockland County, New York