A small neighborhood in Hamden known as Honor Hill has streets that act as memorials every day of the year for some of the town’s sons who were killed in Vietnam.
The streets were named for fallen soldiers starting in the early 1980s, and then a pair of residents who live in the neighborhood found it fitting to install another memorial in the men’s honor.
“We thought it was a wonderful opportunity and this is a wonderful opportunity to let people know, who these streets are named for and to maybe inspire other neighborhoods in Hamden to name streets for the fallen in other wars,” Dave Johnson said.
The new monument, which sits at the base of a flagpole with an American flag atop, has the names of the Honor Hill soldiers inscribed on it.
Maj. Pierce Irving Roberston died in a helicopter crash in October 1966. Capt. Oscar Biehl Jr was killed by small arms fire in May 1966. Spc. 4th Class Ralph Paul Costanzo was fatally wounded in October 1967. Cpl. Donald Porter Ferguson was killed in hostile action in January 1968, and Cpl. Robert Berton Read was killed by small arms fire in February 1969.
Extended family of several of the soldiers were in attendance Monday for the unveiling.
Derek Dunn was two years old when his uncle Pierce Robertson was killed in Vietnam. He said he has no memories of him. He accompanied his mother Bernadette, Pierce’s sister, to the event on Costanzo Court.
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“Sometime in the near future there isn’t going to be anyone left who remembers him or remembers his story, or to tell his story,” Dunn said. so to think that the residents of Honor Hill, took it up themselves to honor him and his other four comrades that gave the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam, just really means the world to us.”
Dick Ferguson made the trip to Hamden on short-notice. Dave Johnson, one of the organizers of the ceremony, got in touch with Ferguson through his elementary school, and eventually made contact just weeks before the event.
Ferguson said his brother’s name is on monuments at Yale in the New Haven harbor, but said the one with the names of the other Hamden fallen soldiers will mean the most to him.
He said he plans to take his family to see the marker in the near future.
“I have two other kids, they don’t live at home right now. Probably not on Memorial Day but the first opportunity, I’ll bring them up here,” Ferguson said.
