SWAMPSCOTT — A cold wind was blowing hard yesterday down Monument Avenue, rustling the leaves that still lay on the ground and whipping the American flags that lined the wide street.
The short, hilly roadway that runs down to the ocean has a special meaning to Swampscott veterans, none more so than David DiPietro, 39, a master chief petty officer in the U.S. Navy who grew up in this town.
"I walked up and down this street with my children," DiPietro told a crowd of 300 gathered yesterday for the annual Veterans' Day ceremony, which was highlighted by the unveiling of a monument to Desert Shield and Desert Storm veterans.
He told the crowd how his family stopped to read his father's name on the Vietnam memorial and the names of two uncles on the World War II monument.
And yesterday, for the first time, DiPietro saw his own name unveiled on a monument recognizing the 27 men and women from Swampscott who served in the First Gulf War from 1990-91.
DiPietro, who was a Navy corpsman attached to a U.S. Marine unit during Desert Storm, said he was humbled to be asked to be the main speaker at the unveiling, and moved to see his name etched in granite on the same stretch of ground honoring so many other Swampscott veterans.
He also admitted, in an interview after the ceremony, to being slightly shocked.
"My name's not supposed to be on a memorial," he said. "I'm too young ... but it's nice."
DiPietro thanked the crowd for coming yesterday, and for giving veterans the welcome that servicemen and women from other wars, particularly his father's generation in Vietnam, did not receive.
"We grew up with that overwhelming sense something wasn't right and we needed to make it right," he said. "Desert Storm was a chance to make it right."
After the ceremony, DiPietro posed for photographs with his former Boy Scout Troop, which was part of the large crowd that turned out.
Also in the crowd was Charlie Baker, the former Swampscott selectman who is now running for governor.
"We come every year," Baker said. "We do it because it's a small town and we know families who've got kids overseas now, we know families who've got kids who've come back, and we know families of kids who didn't come back."
Swampscott has lost more than its share of residents in the terrorist attacks and the fighting in the Middle East. Marine Capt. Jennifer Harris, a helicopter pilot, died in Iraq in 2007, and Army Spc. Jared Raymond was killed the year before when his tank struck an improvised explosive device north of Baghdad.
"Everybody knows everybody," Baker said. "This day matters because of that."
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