A granite monument stands in the middle of Cranford Memorial Park. On it, are etched the names of 86 military service members — Cranford natives all — who made the ultimate sacrifice in war.
There are 15 names from World War I, another 57 from World War II, a pair from the Korean War and 12 from the Vietnam War.
Don Sweeny, a lifelong Cranford resident, has spent a lot of time at the park thinking about who he calls, “Cranford’s 86 heroes.”
His contemplations led him to create a unique approach to honoring these men, one that may have created a blueprint for rejuvenated local interest and participation in Memorial Day parades and ceremonies.
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Every year, Cranford hosts a Memorial Day parade that culminates at the park, when the names of the 86 are read.
For many years, the names of the World War II dead were read by Bob Greco, a Cranford resident and veteran of that war.
“Each year, I would listen to Bob read the names,” Sweeney said. “He would say to the crowd: ‘You will be hearing names, but I will be seeing the faces of my friends, my classmates, my teammates.’
“I remember the emotions coming over me from the way Bob would read the names, and it reminded me these were real people with stories to tell.”
At the time, Sweeney was a boy scout leader.
“We had 86 flags at the ceremony, one for each of the names on the monument,” he said. “The scouts would carry the flags in the parade and at the ceremony dip them out of respect when one of the names was read.”
Sweeny joined the town’s Memorial Day Parade Committee, thinking a few changes were in order.
“Truth be told, I was disappointed in the turnout for Memorial Day,” he said. “The families of the kids in the band and the families of the scouts would show up and the members of the VFW. That was about it.
“I wanted to create more interest in the people we were honoring so we might have more people attend.”
From this notion, the Cranford86 mission was born. Its goal: Memorialize the 86 Cranford war dead.
One of Sweeney’s first ideas was to place one name from the granite monument on each of the 86 flags.
“It started to work,” Sweeny said. “The scouts holding the flags would come up to me and ask, ‘Who was this guy?’ referencing the name on the flag.”
Sweeney’s next idea was to craft a biography and story about the military service for each of the 86 persons and find at least one photo of each.
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About this time, Sweeney met Mike Sapara, a Vietnam veteran.
“Mike told me about two of his friends who were lost in Vietnam,” Sweeney said. “One of them was Ray Ashnault. That is how Janet got involved.”
Janet Ashnault, a software tester whose family has almost three decades of experience in Cranford law enforcement, heard about Sweeney’s project and jumped right in to find out all she could about Ray, who was her husband’s brother.
“Ray was killed in Vietnam in 1969,” Ashnault said. “When we started the research, Ray’s mom was still alive but asking her to talk about her son was overwhelming for her,” Ashnault said. “But when our story about Ray was published in the local paper, she had neighbors and friends call to thank her and to tell her stories they had about her son. She was so proud.”
Ashnault teamed with Sweeney to begin telling the stories of the Cranford86 using many sources including online research tools (ancestry.com, newspapers.com to name a few), military websites, museum archives and the families of the subjects.
“This is not easy work. It takes a lot of digging,” said Ashnault, “but the details we find out are more than the families every knew and the stories are fascinating.”
Ashnault recalled the story of Steven Mager, who went off to fight in World War II. At the time he enlisted he had an infant son and a second child on the way. Mager never came home, and the sons never came to know their father. But they found out about him through the Cranford86 project.
“One of the sons was in his late sixties and the other in his seventies,” Ashnault said. “They were thrilled that their dad was honored at our Memorial Day commemoration. One of them said it was the most exhilarating day of his life.”
“Reactions like that are why I want to work on this project until I am one hundred,” Ashnault said.
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There is also the story of Ben Priddy. In the 1930s, Priddy rose to become vice president of East Coast operations for the W.M McIntosh Company of Virginia, a national asphalt company.
When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, the use of asphalt, like so many other natural resources, was limited by the federal government. The need to build roads and highways in the war zones in Europe and Asia trumped the need to build roads at home.
The American government approached Priddy to re-enlist (he had served during World War I) so he could apply his expertise in building roads at overseas military bases. The 47-year-old executive agreed.
Priddy was headed to the Pacific on the Ronha, a British steamship converted for military transport. German bombers attacked and sunk the Ronha. More than 1,000 American troops were lost in this attack, the greatest loss of American military lives at sea directly due to enemy action.
Partially for that reason, the military considered the event classified and ordered the surviving soldiers to never discuss the incident. The Priddy family only received a perfunctory notice of Ben’s death in the mail.
By the 1990s, some of the survivors began to tell the story of the Ronha and CBS news correspondent Charles Osgood featured the tale on his radio program.
With the shroud of secrecy lifted, Cranford86 found Priddy’s son, grandson and granddaughter who helped put together an appropriate and fitting tribute to Priddy.
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Sweeney estimates that by the end of 2024, 46 of the 86 stories will be completed.
In addition, the Cranford86 project is creating vertical banners for each of the 86 to be attached to the downtown light posts. Sweeney credits local citizens and charitable organizations for helping to fund these banners.
Sweeney also published a book about the first dozen stories and continues to distribute it around Cranford in exchange for a nominal donation to the Cranford86 project.
Sweeney and the activities of the Cranford86 project may have hit upon a way to generate more interest and participation in local Memorial Day parades and ceremonies.
“We now literally have thousands showing up,” said Sweeny about the Cranford Memorial Day events in Cranford. “Members of the families of the Crandford86 join us, as do a lot of people interested in the stories we have been telling.”
“When you read or hear a story about someone rather than see a name on a monument, you can relate to them as people,” said Ashnault. The work of the Cranford86 project is chronicled here.
