WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — John Umlauf has been following the discussion in town about a proposal to bring the Hometown Heroes banner program to Williamstown.

 

He just is not sure why it is a matter of debate.

 

"There's a breadth to this discussion that the opponents have distilled into a couple of issues that really aren't relevant or pertinent when you look at the whole picture," Umlauf said. "It is about service. It is about community. It is about family. It is about recognizing and honoring those who have written that [blank] check and had it cashed."

 

On Saturday morning, Umlauf and fellow veteran Charles Roberts sat down at the Michael Kennedy American Legion Post 152 headquarters to talk about what the Hometown Heroes banner program means to them and how much they look forward to seeing the program come to the northwest corner of the commonwealth.

 

The pair showed off artifacts collected by the local Legion post over the years, including a recognition of Charles White Whittlesey, a Pittsfield High graduate and Williams College alum who earned the Medal of Honor for his leadership of the "Lost Battalion" in World War I.

 

"The level of service in this community is just incredible," said Umlauf, who noted that another Medal of Honor winner who fought in the Civil War is buried in the town's East Lawn Cemetery.

 

Roberts said he was "upset" when he first read about Monday's Select Board meeting, where several residents asked the panel to disallow the placement of the Heroes banners on utility poles in town.

 

"And then my second reaction was when I got to the very end of your article, I was thankful that the board delayed making a decision because they recognized this is an important issue," Roberts said. "And both sides need to be heard."

 

"Both sides" of the discussion can include veterans.

 

Eric Wasilesky is the president of the Berkshire County chapter of the national group Veterans for Peace.

 

He said he joined the service in 1991, right after the U.S. went to war with Iraq, and earned two campaign medals. He was deployed to the former Yugoslavia in 1996 and to Iraq in 1998.

 

And he questions the Hometown Heroes banners.

 

"I'm not taking anything away from the brave people who raised up their hand and served," Wasilesky said last week. "I did the same thing.

 

"[The banners] have a mixed agenda. They're saying, in a Machiavellian way, that they're honoring the veteran, but what they're also doing is recruiting the kids at the same time. They're telling kids, in a not subtle way at all, 'If you want to be remembered, join.' "

 

The Hometown Heroes banner program was brought to the Select Board by Veterans Agent Kurt Durocher, who has been asking communities in his district – including the City of North Adams next door to Williamstown – to allow the banners to allow the banners to be flown in their municipalities.

 

It is not an issue of cost for the towns involved, though Durocher noted that sometimes local public works departments do help annually putting up the banners in the spring and taking them down in the fall. The cost of the memorials is borne by the veterans or, in the case of deceased vets, their families.

 

It is an issue for the Select Board because, while the poles are the private property of National Grid, the utility company already tacitly allows the town to fly American flags and, during June, Pride/Progress flags on the Main Street poles. In the case of the Pride/Progress flags, the Select Board made the decision to fly them but had the evidence of a 2-to-1 majority vote on a related matter at town meeting in 2024.

 

The Sept. 14 presentation by Durocher was the Select Board's first consideration of the Hometown Heroes banners. At that meeting, three residents spoke from the floor with concerns about expanding the program to Williamstown.

 

Anna Moriarty Lev, who said it was problematic to "center positive representation of the military in our community" in the current political climate, also noted it is difficult for those who have similar concerns to express them publicly.

 

"It becomes very difficult to say negative things about a project like this," Moriarty Lev said. "And I think it normally gets overwhelmingly positive support because people don't want to offend anyone or hurt someone's feelings, because it's deeply personal to put a picture of someone who died that you loved, someone who was maybe loved in this community for many reasons, not just their service in the military. But I think that might be why there's overwhelmingly only positive support, because it feels very difficult to say anything else with this kind of project."

 

Social media reaction to Wednesday morning's iBerkshires.com article on Monday night's meeting reinforced Moriarty Lev's point.

 

Comments ran almost unanimously in support of the Hometown Heroes banners on the website's Facebook page. Those comments ranged from the reasoned – posters talking about their own deceased relatives whom they would like to honor – to the histrionic.

 

Roberts, who served in the Army from 1975 to 1995 in areas that included West Berlin and Panama, is not of a mind to attack those who raised concerns about the banners.

 

"It's OK to have differing opinions," Roberts said in an interview in the front room of the Legion Hall. "That's why we served. And everybody has a right to their opinions. We may not agree with them. But it's important for the board to hear from other people who support the program."

 

Likewise, Wasilesky of Veterans for Peace does not ascribe a "mixed agenda" to the families and veterans who purchase the Hometown Heroes banners.

 

"Absolutely not," Wasilesky said. "People loved their dad or uncle, and it's natural to want to remember them. We should do that, but we should be very careful not to glorify war."

 

Wasilesky said he joined Veterans for Peace on Sept. 12, 2001.

 

The national organization is dedicated to, "educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars."

 

The Berkshire County chapter formed in November and has about 15 members, including 30 "associate members," an option for-veteran allies.

 

The local chapter has been involved in area No Kings protests, staged a rally outside a military recruiting center in Pittsfield after the U.S. invaded Venezuela, held a vigil after the U.S. started bombing Iran in February and raised awareness about a local armored vehicle manufacturing company's government contracts.

 

Wasilesky framed his objection to the Hometown Heroes initiative in terms of Veterans for Peace's overall anti-war agenda.

 

"When I speak about the military, it's something I've thought deeply about," Wasilesky said. "If violence worked to create peace, it would have worked when Cain rose up to slay Abel.

 

"Violence as a tool to create peace is the wrong tool."

 

A veteran commenting on a local town Facebook group argued that declining to recognize veterans because of "unjust wars" is not fair.

 

"Please remember that we are generally the last that want to go to war," Barb Reese Keating wrote. "Be upset with the elected officials who send us. Not the ones who served."

 

Umlauf said he does not see the connection between banners honoring veterans and policies that promote war.

 

"To think they would equate the banners to 'the military,' … it just isn't so," Umlauf said. "It's about service. It's about honoring individuals. It's about family. It's about community."

 

And it is about teaching the next generation about the sacrifice of those who went before, the local veterans said.

 

"There's nothing on these banners that talks about recruiting people," Roberts said. "That's why we have recruiting offices. That's why we have recruiters.

 

"But when I say education, it's those conversations with those people looking at the banner: the teenager talking to their mom or their uncle or their neighbor. That's educating about who that person was, when did they join, why did they serve, what experience did they have.

 

"It opens up the doors to talk and to remember."

 

Both Umlauf, a Vietnam veteran, and Roberts said they plan to attend the Sept. 28 meeting when the Select Board likely will take up the Hometown Heroes banner question again and, perhaps, make a decision. They also said that many current and former residents who have served in the armed forces are talking about the issue and have provided feedback to members of the Select Board since the Sept. 14 meeting.

 

Among the arguments against the banners made at that meeting was that the banners themselves are usually bought by families to honor deceased vets, but living veterans are disinclined to seek such recognition when given the opportunities.

 

Umlauf and Roberts represented both sides of that phenomenon.

 

The former joked, "Nobody wants to see my face up there." But the latter said he has purchased a banner for himself as well as for a deceased relative.

 

"It's not about me," Roberts said. "It's for my grandson to have an opportunity to remember and talk about his grandfather. Or for my daughter to remember. And I'll spend my money rather than my daughter spending her money."