Remembering the fallen: Brookfield renames a bridge to honor 3 sons lost in Vietnam
May 29—BROOKFIELD — Underneath a newly erected sign that bore the names of their family members, Lydia Walker and Bob Good embraced and promised to keep in touch.
"We're connected now," Walker said.
That sign, marking the bridge that carries Warren-Sharon Road over Yankee Run, brought them together.
In a ribbon-cutting and renaming ceremony, Brookfield Township officially designated the span as Vietnam Veterans Memorial Bridge, to honor the three Brookfield natives — Marine Lance Cpl. McArthur Coleman, Army Pfc. Paul Good and Army Staff Sgt. Martin Walker Jr.
Bob Good is Paul Good's younger brother, and Lydia Walker is a cousin of Martin Walker.
Coleman died March 30, 1966; Paul Good was killed June 19, 1967; and Martin Walker Jr. fell Feb. 25, 1970.
After 53 years, Pauline Walker Phillips, who now lives in Farrell, still remembers when the Army notification officers arrived to inform her family of Martin's death.
"When they got out and my mother saw them, she went up and locked herself in the bedroom."
Bob Good remembered his older brother as a happy-go-lucky young man with a generous, but not cruel, sense of humor. In his remarks, Good, 74, lamented that the war robbed his older brother of a life, and forever left him as a 19-year-old man.
"He should be turning 76 now," Bob Good said. "He should have a family, a wife and kids and grandkids now.
"Why wasn't he allowed to grow old?"
Martin Walker's father, Martin Sr., now 97, was unable to attend Monday's ceremony, but Pauline said the family was grateful that he lived long enough to see that his sacrifice is recognized.
She credited the township trustees — Shannon Devitz, Mark Ferrara and Dan Suttles, who were all in attendance at Monday's ceremony — and Joe Mariano, a Brookfield native who now lives in Hubbard, for successfully getting the bridge renamed.
Mariano said he first floated the idea 13 years ago and brought a proposal to the trustees.
"I got on the Vietnam website did all the background checking and turned it over to Dan (Suttles), and he did all the political work," Mariano said.
Pauline Walker and Bob Good gave speeches during the ceremony. Walker remembered her brother as football team captain at Brookfield High School and noted that, even though the bridge renaming happened only this week, the school's Class of 1967 has has not forgotten Martin Walker.
In 2017, for the class' 50-year reunion, graduates held a military ceremony in his memory.
NOTE: This article was edited May 30 to correct the spelling of Brookfield Township Trustee Dan Suttles' last name.
