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Veterans, generals from Quincy to be honored Sept. 11 with new park downtown

The Patriot Ledger - 9/7/2021

QUINCY - The city's war heroes will be memorialized on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11 with the unveiling of a new bridge and park honoring Quincy veterans. The park, located downtown behind the 1500 block of Hancock Street, is anchored by a water feature and bronze statues and busts of three- and four-star generals from Quincy.

A ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the corner of the newly named General Dunford Drive and General McConville Way in Quincy Center. The ceremony will include comments from Gov. Charlie Baker, U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch and each of the honorees or those speaking in their memory. A ceremonial flyby, music and the unveiling of the statues and busts will be included in the program.

"It really is going to be pretty amazing," Mayor Thomas Koch said.

The $35.6 millionGenerals Bridge and park project is both a state and city endeavor.

The Generals Bridge will span the MBTA tracks to connect Burgin Parkway with Parkingway by extending Cliveden Street through the site of the former Ross garage.

Construction started in 2019 and is being paid for by the state Department of Transportation at an original cost of about $10.6 million. Progress on the bridge fell behind amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It is expected to open in the next several months.

Associated roadwork and building the new park near the bridge was paid for by the city at an estimated cost of $25 million. The money comes from the city's district improvement financing program.

The project will honor seven generals from Quincy from the Army, the Air Force, the National Guard and the Marines.

Gen. James McConville, Army chief of staff; retired Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, former Joint Chiefs chairman; and retired Army Gen. Gordon Sullivan, former Army chief of staff, will be honored with statues.

Busts will be dedicated to National Guard Major Gen. Francis McGinn, retired Air Force Brigadier Gen. Ronald Rand, Air Force Major Gen. Stephen Keefe and Massachusetts Air National Guard Major Gen. Charles Sweeney.

The statues and busts, cast in bronze, were sculpted in Italy by Sergey Eylanbekov, the same man behind the John Hancock and John Adams statues at the Hancock-Adams Common.

In addition, the names of 11 generals from Quincy dating back to the 1700s have been engraved in the park's commemorative stonework. All of the city's living veterans and those currently serving will also be recognized at Saturday's dedication.

Later this year, the city will release a documentary about the generals being honored and the construction of the bridge and the park. For the film, Koch interviewed all living generals, two of their fathers and Quincy native Dick Stratton, a retired Navy aviator and clinical social worker who served in the Vietnam War.

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Reach Mary Whitfill at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

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