My mom always said, ‘You have to give more than you take,’ and that resonated throughout our whole childhood.”

Ted Simonetti, guest speaker

PORTSMOUTH — Edward “Ted” Simonetti never served in the military, but his family members who did have always stayed with him because of their life lessons.

Simonetti, the guest speaker at Monday’s Veterans Day ceremony hosted in the VFW hall in Common Fence Point by VFW Post 5390 and American Legion Post 18, shared the sacrifices made by veterans in his family that shaped him into the person he is today.

When his mother graduated from high school in Framingham, Mass. in 1945, there were no men in the class, he said. It was wartime. 

She had two brothers, Richard (the oldest) and John. “Richard joined the Army in May of ’43. He was stationed in England for three years. When he got out of the war, he raised his family in Framingham and became a police officer and did mostly clerical work,” Simonetti told the audience. “John was born on July 4, 1922. He was a steamfitter and did a lot of logistics work on tugboats, and was supporting Normandy off the coast. He retired and became a pipe-fitter and raised three kids.”

As for his mom, she was told by her own mother to work at a factory and find a husband. 

“She didn’t like that idea,” he said. “She said her hero was her school teacher. So, she took the time off to go see her school teacher and said, ‘How do I become like you?’” The teacher told her she needed to go to college first.”

Her mother said the family didn’t have the money to send her to college, however. So, she wrote to her brothers.

“They paid for her college. She graduated in 1949 from Salem State, and her brothers paid her money even after college, until she met my father and got married,” said Simonetti.

His father had a younger brother, Joseph, who was always in trouble with the law. He ended up joining the Navy right after the war in 1945 and served in the North Atlantic. “He became disciplined, came home and became a carpenter and raised his kids,” he said.

His dad’s older brother, Russell, joined the Navy right after graduating from high school. “He ended up going to New London, Conn. for an extra dollar a week to become a submariner. He got his dolphins (submarine warfare insignia) in October of ’41; Pearl Harbor was December of ’41,” said Simonetti.

Russell was a plank-holder on the USS Wahoo, which was the third most successful submarine in the war after only six missions and 11 months of service. The Wahoo was tragically sunk in October 1943 in northern Japan. All 80 sailors aboard perished, including Russell.

“My grandmother, I remember as a kid, would say, ‘They’re going to find that submarine one day. They’re going to find Russell.’ And they did, in 2004, by joint Japanese/American forces, and they had a service for him,” he said.

His father was a “mama’s boy” who was good at math. He signed up for service in January 1943 and served as a seabee for three years. He later attended MIT and married in 1954. He was a successful engineer for Gilbane Construction, but had a stroke when he was 49, and had to learn to walk and talk again.

“I was 12 and I learned patience and fortitude from him, but more importantly, discipline,” Simonetti said. “My father was very loving but very strict. We had to tell him every night before we went to bed what we wanted for breakfast, which was cereal. We had to turn off the shower when we were soaping up because water was so expensive. We were allowed only two ice cubes in a glass. We learned frugality from my father.”

His father died of cancer when he was 59, but he and the other veterans in the family taught Simonetti and his sisters empathy, selflessness, sacrifice, discipline and more. “Basically we learned everything from our veterans,” he said.

Simonetti is a member of Montaup Country Club, which distributes $30,000 to $40,000 annually to local charities, including the VFW and the Common Fence Point Improvement Association, which have joined forces for major renovations to the post home.

“My mom always said, ‘You have to give more than you take,’ and that resonated throughout our whole childhood,” he said, noting that’s why he and his sisters are so invested in charity work.

Awards and recognitions

The emcee for the event was Lt. Commander Victor C. Schaefer, USN, the post’s senior vice president. “In these difficult and divisive times, we want to take this opportunity to unify our community and honor our nation’s heroes because first and foremost, we are all Americans,” Schaefer said in his opening remarks. 

Several veterans and other residents were honored during the ceremony, among them Post Commander Ken Rutter. He and the late Ken Sullivan were each recognized with inscribed ceiling tiles.

Boy Scout Troop 1 led the Pledge of Allegiance, while Portsmouth High School student Nila Khoury sang the National Anthem.

Dave Duggan of American Post 18 gave the invocation. Francis “Cisco” Gutierrez, commander of American Legion Post 18, recited the benediction.