thedrifter
09-30-07, 08:08 AM
Town to honor fallen Marine whose mission in life was peace
By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | September 30, 2007
BURLINGTON - Gregory MacDonald, who held a master's degree in philosophy and joined the Marines as a prelude to a diplomatic career, will be remembered Thursday in a memorial ceremony on the Town Common. MacDonald, who was killed in Iraq in 2003, will have his name added in bronze to a memorial for Burlington residents who died in war.
The ceremony will be held on what would have been MacDonald's 34th birthday. The morning will start with a Mass in his memory at St. Margaret's Church at 9. At 10, the town will unveil MacDonald's bronze marker, to be displayed on the Common alongside the names of those killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Burlington will also dedicate a bench in MacDonald's memory near the memorial. The Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums will play at the ceremony.
The Burlington Office of Veterans Services planned the marker for the Common and organized the event after MacDonald's parents, Arthur and Diana, approached the town to ask about renaming their neighborhood's Wildmere Playground in memory of their son. Diana MacDonald said she proposed the idea because the playground was "the beginning of his giving," the first place where MacDonald regularly demonstrated his devotion to others while interacting with neighborhood children.
The 1991 Burlington High graduate worked at camps for children with mental and physical disabilities and volunteered as a swim instructor for the disabled while in high school, his mother said. He also played soccer and competed on the debate team. After majoring in philosophy at Belmont University in Tennessee, MacDonald briefly pursued a degree in theology and worked an office job while determining his course in life, his father said.
MacDonald won a fellowship for graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C., his father said. While completing his master's in philosophy and social policy, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1999, hoping it would help him on a path toward a career in Middle Eastern diplomacy. He studied Arabic and wanted to work for peace in the region, his mother said.
"His mission was peace," Diana MacDonald said. "He has stated that peace begins in the community: Look around you, accept the diversity in the community, don't shun them because they're different than you are. And that's the first small step for peace that everybody can try."
She said her son would have been embarrassed by the attention of Thursday's ceremony but would have appreciated the opportunity to convey his message.
In Iraq, MacDonald's fellow Marines called him "the old man of the unit," his father said, because of his way of coping with the strain of war - he would sit back, light a pipe, and talk about the history of the region.
MacDonald, a lance corporal, served as a gunner in Iraq. He was killed June 25, 2003, when the light armored reconnaissance vehicle he was traveling in flipped while attempting to help a unit that had come under enemy fire, his family said.
MacDonald was the youngest of four children raised in Burlington. Arthur MacDonald, who grew up in the Malden-Everett area, said he picked Burlington to raise his family after finishing his own military service in the late 1960s and has appreciated the sense of community - especially in the last four years.
"We picked this town 40 years ago to live in, and we've never wanted to leave," he said. "The town has really showed its appreciation, at the time of the funeral and now with the memorial. And I don't think you could ask any more of a town than what they've done for us."
Ellie
By Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | September 30, 2007
BURLINGTON - Gregory MacDonald, who held a master's degree in philosophy and joined the Marines as a prelude to a diplomatic career, will be remembered Thursday in a memorial ceremony on the Town Common. MacDonald, who was killed in Iraq in 2003, will have his name added in bronze to a memorial for Burlington residents who died in war.
The ceremony will be held on what would have been MacDonald's 34th birthday. The morning will start with a Mass in his memory at St. Margaret's Church at 9. At 10, the town will unveil MacDonald's bronze marker, to be displayed on the Common alongside the names of those killed in World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam.
Burlington will also dedicate a bench in MacDonald's memory near the memorial. The Boston Police Gaelic Column of Pipes and Drums will play at the ceremony.
The Burlington Office of Veterans Services planned the marker for the Common and organized the event after MacDonald's parents, Arthur and Diana, approached the town to ask about renaming their neighborhood's Wildmere Playground in memory of their son. Diana MacDonald said she proposed the idea because the playground was "the beginning of his giving," the first place where MacDonald regularly demonstrated his devotion to others while interacting with neighborhood children.
The 1991 Burlington High graduate worked at camps for children with mental and physical disabilities and volunteered as a swim instructor for the disabled while in high school, his mother said. He also played soccer and competed on the debate team. After majoring in philosophy at Belmont University in Tennessee, MacDonald briefly pursued a degree in theology and worked an office job while determining his course in life, his father said.
MacDonald won a fellowship for graduate studies at American University in Washington, D.C., his father said. While completing his master's in philosophy and social policy, he joined the Marine Corps Reserve in 1999, hoping it would help him on a path toward a career in Middle Eastern diplomacy. He studied Arabic and wanted to work for peace in the region, his mother said.
"His mission was peace," Diana MacDonald said. "He has stated that peace begins in the community: Look around you, accept the diversity in the community, don't shun them because they're different than you are. And that's the first small step for peace that everybody can try."
She said her son would have been embarrassed by the attention of Thursday's ceremony but would have appreciated the opportunity to convey his message.
In Iraq, MacDonald's fellow Marines called him "the old man of the unit," his father said, because of his way of coping with the strain of war - he would sit back, light a pipe, and talk about the history of the region.
MacDonald, a lance corporal, served as a gunner in Iraq. He was killed June 25, 2003, when the light armored reconnaissance vehicle he was traveling in flipped while attempting to help a unit that had come under enemy fire, his family said.
MacDonald was the youngest of four children raised in Burlington. Arthur MacDonald, who grew up in the Malden-Everett area, said he picked Burlington to raise his family after finishing his own military service in the late 1960s and has appreciated the sense of community - especially in the last four years.
"We picked this town 40 years ago to live in, and we've never wanted to leave," he said. "The town has really showed its appreciation, at the time of the funeral and now with the memorial. And I don't think you could ask any more of a town than what they've done for us."
Ellie