A Medway parade in the 1940s
After many years, the Memorial Committee has re-instituted Honor Guard visits to each of Medway’s 3 cemeteries on Memorial Day morning, May 26. A 21-gun Salute will be fired, honoring all Medway veterans interned. The visits will commence at 8:30 a.m. on the 26th.
The Memorial Day Parade is scheduled for Monday, May 26th at 10:00 am and will formally honor MetroWest Veterans Services Director Sarah Bateman as the Grand Marshall.
The parade will start at the Medway VFW and proceed down Holliston Street to Matondi Square, where it will proceed from the Parks and Recreation Building to Matondi Square in Medway Village.
The parade will include men and women who have served in our armed forces and VFW members. Service men and women are encouraged to march in our parade. Ceremonies will be conducted at Matondi Square. The event is expected to end around 11 am.
Major Richard (Dick) Keogh earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1949 and graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He later earned a master’s degree from Pepperdine University in 1974. Dick began his distinguished military service in 1953. He served in the U.S. Army from 1953 to 1955, and then again from 1958 to 1973. He then continued in Civil Service for the U.S. Navy from 1973 to 1976, and for the U.S. Marine Corps from 1976 to 1993.
The capstone of Dick’s military service was his creation of the Hazardous Devices School at Redstone Arsenal, AL. This school trains all the bomb technicians who serve in the 425 Local, State, and Federal Public Safety Bomb Squads. The school has graduated approximately 10,000 Bomb Technicians since 1971. Every bomb technician in every civilian agency is a graduate of this school, and it is the only one of its kind in the country. He has received many decorations for his contributions during his military service. These include the Bronze Star Medal (Valor) with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Distinguished Service Award from the International Association of Bomb Techniciansin 1996. Dick lives in Hawaii eight months each year and is very involved in scouting in Honolulu where he has received his Silver Beaver and Order of the Arrow Founders Award.
Sarah Bateman has worked for MetroWest Veterans Services District, serving Medway, Hopkinton, Holliston, and Ashland for the last 10 years. She worked as Director of Worcester Veterans Services from 2016 to 2017, and then returned to the District as the Director. Recently, she accepted an appointment by Senate President Spilka to serve on the state's HERO Act Veterans Quality of Life Committee. Veterans Services was certainly a departure from her prior career path. She was trying to help her father navigate health problems and his veterans' benefits, which first led her to this work.
Military service runs in the family. Her father was a Marine, and her grandfather was an Army doctor.
During WWII, her father-in-law was a helicopter repairman during the Korean War, and her husband and brother-in-law had lifelong careers in the Army. Before working in the Veterans' Services arena, Sarah earned her degree in electrical engineering from FAU in Boca Raton, FL. She worked primarily in the wireless communications field as an RF engineer consultant, designing a cellular system throughout South Carolina and Georgia. Born and raised in Belmont, MA, she attended some college before joining the U.S. Air Force. She studied electronics and RF communications at Biloxi AFB in Mississippi for almost a year before being stationed at Homestead Air Force Base south of Miami, FL.
At age 10, she visited Miami with her grandparents, came home, and told her mother she was moving to Miami. Needless to say, Sarah was quite happy to get her first-choice assignment as a Wideband troop near Miami. However, it wasn't all beaches and sunshine. As part of the 726th Tactical Control Squadron, there were a lot of tent deployments throughout the southeastern U.S., many at Avon Park bombing range in central Florida. Not exactly South Beach, but we had fun watching the bombing runs at night. She feels her last ten years serving veterans have been the most rewarding. She has met so many wonderful people in the District. She can't think of anything better than helping veterans and their families navigate federal, state, and local veterans' benefits with the highest level of customer service.