DEERFIELD — Following the death of lifelong South Deerfield resident David White last month, Fred Beckta and Alex Herchenreder are making sure that his legacy of honoring local veterans continues.
Beckta, who serves on the Memorial Day Committee, described White as someone who was dedicated to carrying the stories of veterans forward, even as he faced a difficult battle himself.
“Even though he had been battling cancer, he’d still come down for Memorial Day with his coat and tie and accolade the [veterans],” Beckta said.
In 2012, White helped spearhead efforts to place street signs across Deerfield marking the addresses of veterans from town who died serving in the United States military. According to Beckta, White and a group of volunteers spent hundreds of hours digging through the town’s archives to compile a list of 24 veterans who paid the “ultimate sacrifice,” including Gregory Belanger and brothers Allan and Thomas Johnson, who were killed just five days apart in 1944 while serving in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
“It didn’t matter if these guys were on a ship in the Atlantic, if they were crawling through the jungles of Borneo or if they were in England, if they were over here in clerical — everybody played a part,” Beckta said. “Millions of people were part of these wars, and it’s just staggering.”
A few months ago, Beckta noticed one of the black signs was peeling.
“We need to do something,” he remembered thinking.
He and Herchenreder set off to update the signs. With help from a $1,184 Veterans’ Heritage Grant through Secretary of State William Galvin’s State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB), they spent about 30 hours over several weeks replacing each black marker with a reflective blue sign. In the spirit of Memorial Day, originally called “Decoration Day,” Beckta also placed plastic flowers that his wife crafted beneath each post.
He and Herchenreder started the process on Aug. 22, the day after White died.
“We’re proud to be doing this work and keeping the tradition alive of honoring all of our veterans — not just the ones that were killed in action, but all of them,” Beckta said on a bench in the town common, surrounded by memorials for veterans.
For Memorial Day, Beckta and local veterans led Deerfield Academy, Deerfield Elementary School and Frontier Regional School students through these memorials along with the graves of veterans. On the town common, Beckta heard fifth graders holler, “That’s my grandpa’s name on there! That’s great-grandpa’s name!”
Like these Memorial Day events, Beckta updated the signs to ensure the stories of local veterans outlive his generation.
“We let [the students] know the importance of remembering these people,” Beckta said. “Like they always say, freedom isn’t free, and 24 people in town made the ultimate sacrifice.”
He hopes residents and visitors will not just speed past the new signs, and instead, give them a second look.
“Hopefully they know what KIA means … and take a minute to ponder,” Beckta said.
