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05/26/2021 08:30 AMThis Memorial Day there will be something special for Richard Nagot and the Deep River Veterans Green Monument Committee: the dedication of an addition to the Veterans Memorial Green. The new component is a platform made of granite bricks inscribed with the names of 47 honorably discharged service members who were Deep River residents at the time they entered the military.
The committee, with Rich as its chair, includes William Burdick, Eileen Richard, Richard Forristall and Jonathan Kastner.
Many towns, Rich points out, have memorials that honor residents who fought in wartime. Deep River’s new granite platform does something more: It honors those who served when the country was at peace.
“We wanted to recognize the people who were not already recognized,” he says. “We are one of the few towns that does that,” he says.
He continues to look for names to be added to new bricks in the future.
The Veterans Memorial Green includes the large Columbia memorial with honor rolls of those who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Stars next to names show those who lost their lives.
There is a smaller plaque mounted on a stone on the opposite end of the green with the names of Deep River residents who lost their lives in World War I. The bronze eagle set atop a large boulder near the plaque has an inscription honoring all Deep River residents who fought in World War I.
The end of the Memorial Green, with the World War I monuments, is cut off from the rest of the area by a road. What looks like a brick walkway connects the two areas, but the walkway is not brick at all. Rich wanted an attractive path to create a sense of unity between the two sections of the green, but one that would not be damaged by road salt and water as real bricks would have been.
As he was considering what to do, he saw workmen in Ivoryton putting down an artificial carpet with lines made to look like real brick and sealing it with a roller. He thought that would be perfect answer for the walkway and arranged for a similar one to be installed. He doesn’t think people today have any idea that the bricks they are walking on in crosswalk are not really bricks at all.
Rich grew up in Stamford steeped in his Polish heritage.
“All four of my grandparents were Polish,” he says.
He went to a parochial grammar school where the Polish was taught. He could speak the language well but never wrote it with proficiency. He explained to the teacher that he spoke to his grandmother, but he did not write her letters.
Rich, a Navy veteran, hadn’t originally planned to enlist in the Navy. He wanted to join the Coast Guard. He had all the paperwork filled out, but when he went to turn it in to the Coast Guard recruiter, he found the terms of service had changed. He would have had to serve four years instead of two or enlist for six months on active duty and then have a 6 ½ year reserve commitment. He decided against enlisting.
Since this happened far before the all-volunteer Army, Rich still had to worry about being drafted. The draft age then was 26. By his mid-twenties, he already had had two deferments.
“I knew I could get a draft notice anytime,” he says.
Looking to the future, he enlisted in the naval reserve when he was 25 and went on active duty a year later. The cap Rich usually wears tells the story of his military service: the logo reads USS Boxer, the ship he served on during his military service from December 1966 to October 1968.
“I had great duty,” he recalls. “St. Thomas, St. Croix, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama.”
When it was time to settle down after his discharge, Rich wanted to reproduce the small town feel of Stamford when he was growing up. But Stamford was by then a far bigger place and Rich weighed other options.
“Maine was too cold; Cape Cod was like out of the frying pan into the fire, in other words just like Stamford,” he recalls.
A neighbor suggested Rich look in this area. He found both a job and a home. He has lived in Deep River for 40 years.
“You couldn’t find a nicer place,” he says.
Now retired, Rich spent his working life as a tool-and-die maker.
He thinks attitudes toward the military have changed since the days when some Vietnam veterans received a cold welcome when they returned to the United States.
“Vietnam left a bad taste in people’s mouth, but now people are respectful. I think 9/11 had a lot to do with the change” in attitude, he says. “I hope that people are proud of veterans. It is upsetting when young kids have no interest.”
He believes his continuing work on veterans’ issues is an important part of his service.
“I did two years in the Navy, but I think I do more for the town, the state, and the nation now than I did then,” he says. “Remember, freedom is not free.”
Rich is senior vice commander of the local American Legion Post 61, as well as treasurer and children and youth officer, charged with informing young people about the responsibilities and accomplishments of United States armed forces. He speaks on Memorial Day in that capacity at local schools.
Rich is also the CEO of the Winthrop Cemetery Association and treasurer of Deep River’s 60 club. He is member of the Deep River Garden Club and an enthusiastic cultivator of both flowers and vegetables. He was a member of the Deep River Town Hall Restoration Committee and at one time on the board of trustees of the Deep River Historical Society.
“I’m not sitting around waiting to die,” he says.