Joy of Christmas

Christmas may be over, but the red, white and blue lights outside the Middlebury Volunteer Fire Department are going to stay up for awhile, said the town’s fire chief.

Chief Paul Perrotti said this week that he plans to leave the patriotic lights, which were strung for the holidays, up until the conflict in Iraq ends. The separate strings of lights are strung around three light posts near the department’s flagpole.

“Residents keep asking me when I’m going to take down the Christmas lights,” he said. “But we’re going to keep them up to honor the troops.”

Perrotti, a former U.S. Marine, and other volunteer firefighters are responsible for placing the large “support our troops” signs around town. He said the department plans to rebuild the signs in the spring.

“We’re a patriotic department and we think the most important thing we can do is support the troops,” he said.

Resident Selma Frohn’s son, U.S. Army Maj. Damian Bartholomew, returned to the United States in December from his third tour of duty in Iraq. He will return later this year for a fourth tour. Frohn, whose son lives in Texas, said she appreciates the fire department’s support of the troops.

“I think it’s fabulous,” she said Tuesday. “Anything anybody can do, whether it’s the fire department, the police department, the town, I support it 100 percent.”

Bartholomew, who served as keynote speaker at the town’s Memorial Day ceremony two years ago, sent an Iraqi flag to the town last August while he was stationed with the 228th Combat Support Hospital in Mosul, Iraq.

Because he was overseas and unable to attend the town’s Memorial Day celebration last year, the flag and a letter that accompanied it was Bartholomew’s own show of support for both his town and its residents who have served in combat overseas.

“Our hospitals are overflowing with our injured soldiers to the point of where it’s unbelievable,” Frohn added.

“And the American public, myself included, has to show them as much support as we can.”

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