As .30-caliber casings hit the ground at Christmas Hill Park’s Veterans Memorial during a 21-gun salute on a recent Saturday, tears rained down and a man holding a flag for his father—whom he never had the opportunity to meet—tried his best to stay strong.
Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Honor Guard Post 6309 presented Eddie Kannely Jr., of Alameda, with a flag honoring fallen Gilroy Army veteran Walter Edward Kannely during an emotional ceremony Oct. 25. It also served as a ‘long overdue’ reunion for branches of the Kannely family tree that were severed when Walter was killed in the line of duty in 1945, family members in attendance said.
“This is a very, very special day for our family because we’re reuniting with a family member we have never met (Eddie)—a family member who drove a tremendous distance to get here,” said Gilroy local MaryAnn Puente, Walter’s niece. “We’re really appreciative and thankful to God that he has joined us together since we’ve been separated for many, many years.”
Eddie was only 10-months-old when his father died in a plane crash while his regiment was on the way to be a part of General Douglas MacArthur’s honor guard for the signing of the peace treaty with Japan. Walter’s death divided the Kannely family, and until recently, Eddie and his side of the family had no idea they had countless relatives eager to meet them.
For Eddie, now 70, the ceremony was extremely emotional and he said it took a great deal of strength to stand tall as the VFW Honor Guard fired each somber shot in honor of the father he never knew. The names of other fallen veterans—including members of the Kannely family—decorate bricks on the ground at the Veteran’s Memorial.
But because he didn’t serve in the armed forces himself, Eddie hinted at a sense that—somehow—he wasn’t worthy to receive his father’s flag.
“I didn’t go into the service and that was during the hippy times. Guys didn’t do the service if they could get out of it,” he explained. “So, I didn’t go in and all these guys did—let alone all these guys on the bricks. That sort of makes you feel like you’re on the ferry but you didn’t pay. If anything, I wanted to show strength for my dad and for all these guys who stood up here and did their time. I had to do whatever I could.”
After the ceremony concluded, the Honor Guard collected all the casings from the M1 Garand rifles used during the 21-gun salute and presented them to Eddie.
Cutting the ice after an emotional experience, Eddie joked: “I was going to take one anyways.”
“That’s what I was thinking,” said Jennifer Fickett, Eddie’s daughter, cracking a smile.
Fickett made the six-hour drive from Yreka to connect with family members she never met, and to pause to reflect on the sacrifices of members of the Kannely family—a family that knows all too well the high cost of freedom. Five brothers served in the armed forces during World War II, but only three came home.
Since 1850, members of the Kannely family have called Gilroy home, Puente noted, and the Ficketts were overwhelmed at the concept of finally inheriting new members of the family.
“This is my first time meeting any of them,” said Jennifer, who was comforted by her husband Kenny at the ceremony. “It’s a little overwhelming. It’s family I never knew I had.”
“Butterflies—the good kind,” Kenny added.
The ceremony held extra meaning for the Ficketts, as their son Willie had just graduated from boot camp this month and is entering the U.S. Army.
“Freedom isn’t free,” noted Pastor Malcom MacPhail, chaplain for the Gilroy Police Department and pastor with New Hope Community Church who spoke during the ceremony. “Sometimes it comes at a high cost—the cost of losing a family member, the cost of having a hole in the family and wondering what would it be like if that person was still with us. On this day, we are reuniting and wish to remember the brave father who gave his life for his country and the legacy he left for his child and his granddaughter.”
“Eddie, your dad was a great man,” MacPhail continued. “He was a member of the greatest generation. If you look back at what took place after 1945, those men and women came back and literally built the country we live in. They’re the ones who were the industrialists, the engineers and the businessmen who built America—much like it is today. It was these attributes that led him to serve his country. It was the attributes that the men who served alongside him had. Those attributes were in your dad even though he didn’t get the opportunity to come back and build. Those attributes live on in your family and in your children, and we see evidence of that today.”
