GUILFORD, Conn. — Ahead of Memorial Day, a special moment for a family in Guilford, more than 100 years after a hero’s death.
Paul Maynard was killed in World War I. Friday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal presented the Maynard family with a Purple Heart medal.
Paul Maynard from Torrington died on Nov. 11, 1918, the last day of World War I. He was fighting in the Yankee Division, which was made up of all New England servicemen. Maynard was killed while fighting in France. He’s buried there today.
Rick Maynard, Paul’s grandnephew, was there to accept the award on the family’s behalf. In 2010, Rick had discovered in his father’s basement something fascinating that led him on a discovery to learn more about the “granduncle” who died at the age of 21.
“There was a manila envelope, bulging with letters. I opened it up and saw about three dozen letters written from Paul to my grandfather from the battle fields of France,” Maynard said. “I started reading these letters and said, ‘Oh my goodness! This is amazing!’”
Since then, the family and state historians have been able to piece together the history of Sgt. Maynard, and with it they’ve learned more about the experiences of soldiers during the war.
“He wrote with such innocence,” said Maynard. “Evidently, there was a rumor going around that he was smoking cigarettes. He wrote, ‘I’m just the same fellow as I used to be, and mother need not worry. Tell Dad I’m not old enough to start smoking yet.’”
Rick Maynard describes Paul as a patriot and a hero, but also just a country farm boy from Torrington. Paul would write his brother, encouraging his brother, Rick’s grandfather, to keep helping mom and dad on the potato farm.
“Nov. 4, 1918, to his brother,” Rick Maynard read from an excerpt of Paul’s letters. “‘Well, Glen, I thought a good many times I never would be able to write home again. We have had a hard time on this front and we’ll be glad when it’s over with. Write often and don’t forget your old chum.’”
One week after writing that letter, he was killed by artillery shell.
But generations later, the Maynard family never forgot their “old chum.” Paul Maynard is recognized as the last Connecticut soldier to die in battle in World War I.
“He was doing his job and defending our democracy on that day,” said Blumenthal, who’s a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Veterans Affairs Committee. “It was a patriotic and heroic death.”
The American Battle Monuments Commission paid tribute to Sgt. Paul Maynard with a mini documentary released in 2015.
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