McShawn's Pub continues to support those who served

By Pete Fontaine
Posted 6/14/17

It was a process six years in the making. It started by selling military plaques to raise money for various veterans' charities, then putting the colorful and wooden memorials on the rafters inside the McShawn's Pub back porch in

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McShawn's Pub continues to support those who served

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It was a process six years in the making.

It started by selling military plaques to raise money for various veterans’ charities, then putting the colorful and wooden memorials on the rafters inside the McShawn’s Pub back porch in Cranston.

Sunday, McShawn’s Pub Back Porch Veterans Association reached its pinnacle.

The non-profit, which was founded in the name and memory of the late and highly-respected McShawn’s Pub proprietor Sean Holley, raised $9,200 Sunday by way of a number of auctions and donations.

Add to that a surprise $5,000 check from the House of Representatives, by way of Cranston resident and Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, and the Rhode Island Fire Chiefs Honor Flight Hub was $14,200 richer.

“We can’t thank McShawn’s Pub for all it continues to do for the Honor Flight program,” said George Farrell, a retired Providence Fire Chief and Chairman of the Honor Flight Board of Directors who founded the Honor Flight program in Rhode Island. “The people here have been special supporters of the flights.”

Farrell, whose programs continue to receive national attention, then paused amid the sound of applause, saying, “The R.I. Fire Chiefs Honor Flight Hub is extremely grateful to the Rhode Island House of Representatives and the House Veterans Advisory Council for their very generous gift to our “hub,” which will allow us to continue our mission of taking Rhode Island’s World War II and Korean War Veterans on their Honor Flight to Washington, D.C., to visit and reflect at those memories built to honor their service and sacrifice.”

In 2011, as Farrell explained Sunday, “I approached then R.I. Fire Chiefs Association President Chief David Sayles, himself a U.S. Army combat infantry veteran in Vietnam, and he embraced the idea and supported me every step of the way to get our RI Fire Chiefs Hub off the ground.”

Since November 2012, the R.I. Fire Chiefs Honor Flight Hub has transported 400 World War II veterans and 36 Korean War veterans to Washington, D.C., on 16 Honor Flights.

“Our veterans have ranged in age from 82 to 103 years old,” Farrell noted Sunday after receiving the $5,000 check from Edward P. Kane, President of the House of Representatives House Veterans Advisory Council. “And the people here at McShawn’s, they have been incredibly dedicated in raising money for the Honor Flight Hub.”

Peter Smith, a Cranston native and U.S. Army veteran who made those colorful plaques that began with people purchasing 80 six years ago and now total over 200, combines his efforts with an all-volunteer committee made up of McShawn’s Pub patrons and works tirelessly to raise money for the Honor Flight Hub. Two years ago, in fact, one of the treks to Washington was officially named the McShawn’s Pub Honor Flight.

Smith, who shuns any type of accolades or publicity, noted, “We raised money for three different veterans charities when we started, but the last three years have all been dedicated and donated to the Honor Flight Hub.”

As an example of how people have banded together to raise money for the McShawn’s Honor Flight Hub, Kirk Tilander donated three of his prize sports memorabilia pieces – authentic and framed David Ortiz and Tom Brady pieces as well as another item that was a piece of the parquet floor at the old Boston Garden – and they generated $1,200 in the silent raffle.

“It’s all about helping fund the Honor Flights for our valued veterans,” said Tilander “There were a lot of people who helped make today special.”

Those folks did so for mighty men like James Procter of Central Falls, now 93, who enlisted in the U.S. Navy at age 17 and was a torpedo man aboard the U.S.S. Evans DD 552 that was hit by four kamikaze planes in 1945 off the coast of Okinawa.

The attack took the lives of 30 sailors and wounded another 29, but Procter kept on loading torpedoes and U.S.S Evans gunners fired away until the U.S.S Hubbard came on the scene to secure the ship and tow it to a port.

Procter, who later married Alice Bloomer, who was also in the Navy and while the two were on leave back in 1943, never got back onto the ship because the war ended soon thereafter. He spent 36 years in the textile industry before retiring.

The entire list of World War II veterans who were the “Grand Guests of Honor” Sunday at McShawn’s Pub, included:

Louis Kelley, U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. A.E. Anderson; He was born in Cranston and raised seven children and was a member of the Oakland Fire Department and spent 39 years as an electrician. He drove racecars in his younger years and now lives in Coventry.

Norman Heckler, U.S. Navy and served in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S Arided. He was born in Providence and attended Hope High and joined the Navy in 1943 and was a store manager for Benny‘s for 30 years while raising two children. He now lives in Cranston.

Irwin Shulkin, U.S. Navy and served in the Pacific aboard the U.S. Amphitrite. Born in Providence, he attended Hope High and was self employed and started several successful businesses. He lives in Cranston.

Charles Proctor, U.S. Navy and served in the Pacific in the U.S. Naval Guard. Born in Providence he attended Hope High and worked for 42 years for Narragansett Electric. He raised five children after the war. He was part of the Navy guard, a very dangerous job that many guns on very slow and unprotected merchant ships traveling in enemy waters.

John Harrington, U.S. Navy and served aboard the U.S.S. Ericsson in the Atlantic. He attended La Salle Academy and after the war graduated from Providence College and later worked at Champion Spark Plugs. He was the oldest of five children and last known crew member of the U.S.S Ericsson which was one of three ships that sunk the German sub U-853 off the coast of Rhode Island jus day before the war with Germany ended.

Joseph Joel, U.S. Army and served in the 30th Infantry Division. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. He personally took out two German tanks with a bazooka and for that he received a Bronze Star. He is worked at the Providence Civic Center and Johnson & Wales University.

William Riley, U.S. Air Force Crash Rescue. Born in Providence he attended La Salle and joined the air corps just after the way and stay in through the Korean War serving with the Fifth Air Roe. He worked for many yeas at Brown and Sharpe then became self-employed. He lives in Cranston.

Warwick Police Chief Col. Stephen M. McCartney delivered the keynote address while Paul Reed, former president of the R.I. Fire Chiefs Association, was the emcee. Rev. Robert Marciano, the popular pastor at St. Kevin Church in Warwick who serves as the WPD Chaplain, delivered the invocation and benediction.

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