Haverhill Veterans Book to be Released

In Service to America: Haverhill's Heroes from Concord to Kabul

Haverhill Historian Publishes Book to raise Funds for Local Veterans Groups

E. Philip Brown, author of Greeks of the Merrimack Valley and owner of Boosters Zone,is helping Veterans groups in Haverhill raise funds to help local Veterans in need. The book is scheduled to be released Friday July 13, 2018.

After retiring from Haverhill High School in the fall, Mr. Brown was looking to write another Haverhill history book as a fundraiser for a local non-profit organization. He chose to help veterans because "I've always found it difficult to understand why veterans face so much adversity when they return to civilian life. My father, Ted Brown, like many servicemen, took up smoking during the war. Although he stopped before was born, he suffered from COPD ever since I could remember. He had difficulty getting treatment from the VHA back in the 1970s when his condition worsened. I've also had a relative who was a homeless veteran and couldn't believe how difficult it was to get services for him."

The book is a fundraiser for local veterans organizations such as the Veterans Northeast Outreach Center, American Legion, AMVETS, VFW, and Korean War Veterans.

The book will have summaries of Haverhill's participation in America's wars, lists of those who served and died, documents and photos, monuments and memorials, and stories about notable veterans both alive and deceased.

Boosters Zone, raised funds for the book from sponsorships and advertisements from local businesses. There are also memorials and tributes from families of those who have served. The books will be sold by local veterans groups and non-profit organizations. They will also be placed in waiting rooms across the city for a voluntary donation.

As readers will see, Haverhill played an important role in winning America's independence, but the contributions did not end there. Thousands of military hailing from Haverhill have served in all of the United States military's most crucial engagements, from the Revolutionary War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Readers will learn about patriots such as Brigadier General James Brickett who led an expedition to Canada and Fort Ticonderoga. Later, he commanded a regiment of volunteer Massachusetts Militiamen that marched from Haverhill to reinforce the Northern Army at Saratoga, where British General Burgoyne famously surrendered to General Horatio Gates.

Haverhill's William Bartlett became the youngest Major General in the Union Army, at the age of 25. He achieved that honor when he returned to duty after losing a leg to wounds in the siege of Yorktown. He entered the Army after graduating from Harvard College and was appointed a captain of the 20th Mass. Infantry. He led Union forces at Petersburg, where he was captured and held in a Confederate prison until the War ended. A full-length statue was placed in the Massachusetts State House in 1904 in his honor.

John Katsaros survived a B-17 bailout in 1944 over France in World War II. He was captured by the Gestapo. Then he was rescued by the French underground in what began a perilous quest for freedom through France and Spain.

Lance Corporal Dimitrios Gavriel, a Brown University graduate, walked away from a lucrative career on Wall Street to avenge the deaths of friends lost on Sept. 11, 2001. He enlisted with the Marines and was deployed to Iraq in June 2004 for a seven-month deployment, He waskilled by an explosion during the Fallujah fighting and laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery with some of America's most revered military heroes.

From heroism abroad to heartache at home, In Service to America: Haverhill's Heroes from Concord to Kabul,will be commemorating the extraordinary courage that was born and bred in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

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