Weekly Coffee

"A Unique Gathering"

   Without call to do so, they come together at ten o’ clock on Thursday mornings for an hour or so, as they have done for many weeks in the past, in the rear dining area of a restaurant in a Connecticut municipality, courtesy of a well-known New England chain. Fifteen to twenty in number usually. Today is thirty or so. None related by blood or marriage.  Usually all male but not always.  Many retired but some still working. It is not the meeting of any organization. There is no agenda, no assigned seating at the long table consisting of individual tables pulled together, no attendance taken, no one presides, no dues exacted and no prohibition on addressing the assemblage if one is so inclined, with respectful attention if one does.

   They converse in changing small enclaves principally about family, children and grandchildren are favorites, about the doings of government, foreign, federal, state and local, about world events, about daily regimens, about friends and concerns for friends ailing, about travel and hobbies, about subjects miscellaneous, but rarely about the common denominator that draws these individuals  together week after week.

   They are not alumni of a single high school for they received their education in such diverse locales as Waterbury, CT, Clearfield, PA, West Hartford, CT, New York City, Southington, CT, Canton, CT, Sunnyburn, PA, Hartford, CT, Stamford, CT Utica, NY, Farmington, CT Pawtucket, RI, Watertown, CT and Simsbury, CT. Nor is the common thread the equally diverse secondary institutions attended with Penn State, University of Hartford, Boston College, John Carroll University, Dartmouth College, University of Rhode Island, New Britain Hospital of Nursing, Marlboro College, Suffolk University and the University of Connecticut in the mix.

 There is no commonality in their life’s vocations of sales engineer, proprietor/service business, builder, salesman/food industry, proprietor/retail store, insurance, investment management/proprietor, lawyer, newspaperman, lobbyist, nurse, proprietor/beauty salon and utility/management that can account for their presence this morning, or any Thursday morning.

   These are persons who mostly never met one another until well into their adult or even senior years and did not know until then the heritage they possessed in common. There is no noticeable sign or aura proclaiming a mutual bond amongst them - even to the most observant. Those possessing the heritage do not broadcast it. Nor do they tend to regard it uncommon. It is quite possible a stranger seated by happenstance in that dining area on a Thursday morning would surmise those gathered were ordinary persons, just as those there gathered regard themselves. The stranger would be right in the assumption and would never know these ordinary people had performed extraordinary - perhaps even heroic by common standards - deeds in younger years, thereby gaining admission to the group’s membership.

   The first step toward acquiring that heritage consisted of all raising their right hands, swearing to protect and defend their country and the Constitution and, as they uttered the last word of that oath, becoming members of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. Subsequently, when called upon to walk in harm’s way in the observance of that pledge, they did so with honor and distinction despite the great trepidation and uncertainties then besetting them. Some suffered harm. Wheelchairs are the telltales of two of a number who did. On some the consequences of the harm are not so obvious. Others escaped physical harm - some by the slimmest of margins - only to see a near at hand comrade die. All spent months if not years in theretofore unknown, unanticipated and highly inhospitable places -  at times undertaking previously unimaginable acts far from the shores of this country and knowing at the time they might not view those shores again.

   That they survived all they encountered in the conflicts each participated in as a member of our country’s military was the final step in completing the molding of the legacy that brings them weekly together. They are quietly proud of that heritage. Understandably, it is a heritage that few - who have not achieved it as they did - can fully fathom and appreciate. Try as they might, and they do try from time to time, occasionally in public but mostly in the bosom of family and friends, it doesn’t seem to them they are able to imbue a broad spectrum of succeeding generations with the importance they, with the heritage, place on each citizen being willing to similarly protect the freedoms unique to America whenever those freedoms are endangered by despots or worse -  to include walking in harm’s way.

    The members joined in that heritage are dwindling in this community – as they are everywhere. Eventually the rear dining room of the restaurant will no longer host this unusual Thursday morning gathering.  Quiet will likely reign then for that hour.  While the attendees at these gatherings have not sought and do not seek any tribute the silence would be a worthy – but only a next best – tribute succeeding generations could pay to the group and to its counterparts across our nation. The best tribute? The exhibition by each succeeding generation, ad infinitum, of a sincere and enduring commitment to maintain all that was achieved by members of the military of the United States of America from 1775 down to each day in the life of each member of these successive generations – coupled with a vow to preserve unaltered the hard-won freedoms those generations have been gifted with, have enjoyed and are then enjoying!

ROBERT C. HUNT, Jr.

 Bob Hunt served as a Combat Engineer in World War II and, at 18 years old, landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He fought his way throughout the European Theater and was awarded five (5) battle stars for the Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes-Alsace and Central Europe Campaigns.  Bob serves as our Post Historian.

Postscript: “The Unique Gathering” describes a “coffee clutch” at Friendly’s Restaurant in Avon CT which brings together weekly Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard Veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War and Iraq. This informal group, from Post 3272 Veterans of Foreign Wars, has seen war up close and share a close bond because of their military service. They have been meeting there each Thursday morning for many years.