Military history events were examined by a full house of local veterans at the monthly Senior Center breakfast on April 7. In accompanying photo (from left), a veteran holds an image of “near beer” (older veterans recall this prohibition-era fare at military facilities); Jim Rose (Air Force) holds a photo of the Shiloh National Cemetery in Tennessee, where more than 9,000 Americans perished in 1862 during a two-day Civil War battle; Peter C. Redding (Army) holds a 1942 image of the Manzanar Relocation Camp in California, which was among 10 similar camps housing Japanese Americans who were sequestered from the general population during the early phase of World War II; Bob Letendre (Army) displays a photo of captives — mostly young girls and their caretakers — awaiting transportation to Auschwitz in 1944; Jeff Macmillan (Navy) holds a photo of an explosion that led to the sinking of the Japanese battleship Yamato in 1945 by torpedoes from the USS Yorktown; and William Muench (Navy) displays a characterization of the “domino theory” coined by President Eisenhower in 1954.

The sailor on “guard duty” on the monitor is Navy Commander Thomas William Entwistle Jr., a pilot from Hopkinton who served during the Vietnam conflict.

The next Veterans Breakfast is scheduled for May 5 at the Senior Center.

Recap contributed by Hank Allessio