By Jason Klaiber
Staff Writer
On April 23, alongside county representatives, members of the DeWitt Rotary Club unveiled their donation of a commemorative plaque to Assembly Hall in the Onondaga County War Memorial.
The plaque features the poem “Our Sworn Duty” by World War II veteran Fred Talbot.
Upon being wounded in France and returned to his hometown of Beacon on a hospital ship, Talbot went on to graduate from the Syracuse University School of Architecture in 1949.
Talbot, who passed away in November 2016, also served as a member of the DeWitt Rotary Club for over 50 years.
It was there that he met his friend Mel Rubenstein.
Around the time Rubenstein finished up the manuscript for his book “The Peacetime Draft During the Cold War” about a decade ago, Talbot read it over and returned it with the poem handwritten on a separate piece of paper.
“The rest is history,” Rubenstein said. “The poem took on a life of its own.”
“Our Sworn Duty” found its way onto the fifth page of Rubenstein’s book, which compiled 19 Cold War-era stories from area veterans.
The poem later went on permanent display at the Syracuse VA Medical Center and now rests prominently on one of the War Memorial’s columns at the request of the facility’s planning committee.
“It’s a short two-stanza poem, but when you stand by and read it, it just says so much about what our servicemen mean to this country,” Rubenstein, who served from 1957 to 1959, said.
The poem reads as follows:
“Whether the sky is dark or gloomy gray
Or blue and full of warming sun
The eagle soars not only for prey
But to protect its helpless young.
As faithful soldiers with steady nerve
We stand ready to shield our own
Our sworn duty is to protect and serve
Whenever seeds of hate are sown.”
“Fred Talbot was special, and the poem deserved to be shared with everyone,” Linda Ervin, the DeWitt Rotary Club’s president, said.
