For Immediate Release May 17, 2024
Contact: Peter Galgano, Secretary Charles Colaresi, Chairman (860) 604-7258 (860) 224-9494

MEMORIAL DAY PARADE – Monday - MAY 27, 2024

Parade Route and Ceremony at the Berlin Veterans Memorial Park
(Berlin, CT) – This year’s Memorial Day Parade will start at 9:00 AM at St. Paul’s Church on Peck Street, Kensington. There will be a flyover by the CT Air National Guard during the parade. The parade route will go down Farmington Avenue turning left onto Massirio Drive, passing the Berlin Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10732, then a left onto Veterans Way and end at the Berlin Veterans Memorial Park, where a Memorial Day Ceremony will take place between 9:45 and 10:05 AM.

There will be an Invocation by Clifford P. Cote, US Air Force Veteran and Father Joe, from St. Paul’s will do the Benediction. The Berlin High School Madrigal Singers, directed by Tyler Boyle, will sing the “National Anthem” and “America the Beautiful”. The Berlin High School Saxophone Quartet will play an "Armed Forces Medley", directed by Christopher Dresko. There will be a rifle volley by the joint members of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10732, and members of the American Legion Post 68, followed by Taps played by Berlin HS Trumpeters Whitney White and Maggie Yantz.

This year’s guest speaker is Anthony Gagliardi, Commander of VFW Post 10732.
Anthony Gagliardi is a native of Berlin, CT. He attended Griswold Elementary School and McGee Middle School, before graduating from Berlin High with the class of 2010. Upon graduation he moved to Lexington, VA to attend Virginia Military Institute. While there he enlisted in the Virginia National Guard, graduating from infantry one station unit training in August 2011, and serving as a rifleman with Bravo Co. 3rd BN, 116th IN REGT. Anthony participated in ROTC while at VMI, and upon graduation in 2014 he commissioned as a second lieutenant in the air defense branch of the U.S. Army.

He spent his first six months of active duty at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma attending the basic officer leadership course before being stationed at Fort Campbell, KY. He spent four years at Ft. Campbell serving as a platoon leader, executive officer, and operations officer in a counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar intercept unit, with whom he deployed twice to Iraq. Anthony left active duty as a captain in 2019 and transitioned to the Army Reserve, serving as an all-source intelligence analyst for Central Command Army Reserve Element Detachment One in Devens, MA.

This past February he transferred to Saco, ME, where he took command of Bravo Co. 3d BN, 304th IN REGT. Anthony married his wife Jess in 2019, with whom he has two daughters: three-year-old Emma, and six-month-old Lia. They currently reside in Newington but are excited to be building their dream home in Berlin and plan to move this fall.
In the event of rain, the Memorial Day Ceremony will be held at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10732, 152 Massirio Dr., Berlin, CT 06037 at 9:00 AM.