Two Warren residents – an infantryman who served in World War II on planes that were made to crash and a commander of Black troops in the Civil War – will be remembered at Veterans Day ceremonies Monday.

The ceremonies will begin at 11 a.m. on the Town Common. A collation will follow in the Methodist Church across from the Common.

Those being memorialized Monday are Jean Morency and Nathan Goff Jr.

The late Jean A. Morency served with the 194th Glider Infantry Regiment during World War II. Gliders were the “stealth” planes of that era, and jokingly referred to as “the planes that were built to crash” and more seriously as “flying coffins.”
Gliders, which had no engines, were towed by larger planes that released the tow lines up to 25 miles from the gliders’ landing zones. The 13-man squads and two pilots in each glider became a surprise force because the gliders made no noise as they slowly descended toward their landing zones.

Flat areas were picked as landing zones, but gliders frequently crashed into obstacles that had gone undetected in aerial photos, such as tree stumps. The gliders were also landed many times in the thick of battle. Their slow speed, coupled with no armor and no guns, made them easy targets, or “flying coffins,” as the soldiers deemed.

Morency, a native of Quebec, returned to his home in Warren after World War II, served in the state legislature and was the long-time president of Cercle Jacques Cartier #3, which was known locally as the French Club.

His daughter, Denise Kinney, administrative assistant to the Warren town manager, will speak at Monday’s ceremony, giving the personal side of her father.

Dave McCarthy, commander of American Legion Post #104 of Warren, will detail Jean Morency’s military exploits.

Nathan Goff Jr. was born in Warren and joined the Union Army at the start of the Civil War as a captain. He was mustered out of the Army at war’s end four years later as a brigadier general.

He fought in all the major battles of the Army of the Potomac in the eastern theater. While serving as a lieutenant colonel, he was severely wounded on June 15, 1864, at the Second Battle of Petersburg.

He returned to duty that October and, promoted to colonel, was given command of the 37th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. He led the 37th in the two famous battles for Fort Fisher, which guarded the last southern port still in Confederate hands – Wilmington N.C.

The first battle, in late December 1864, was unsuccessful. The second battle, in January 1865, resulted in a Union victory. Goff was promoted to general shortly after the taking of Fort Fisher.
General Goff returned to Warren after the war. He died on April 17, 1903, and is buried in the South Burial Ground.