For First Sgt. Paul J. Hannaway of the United States Marines Corps (USMC), being grand marshal of Branford’s Memorial Day Parade on May 30 is a great honor and a great opportunity.

“I hope the Branford parade gets bigger and bigger every year, and I hope people understand what it’s about,” says Paul. “It’s about remembrance. My main objective is to just build military community relations, and go past the parade. Memorial Day’s great, but I’m talking about the rest of the year. I want to build something for the military into whatever town I can.”

The Hannaway family has been residing in Branford for about a year and a half. In that short time, Paul’s been working to reach out to the shoreline to help bridge the gap between citizens and active military.

“We want to get out to the shoreline and let people know there’s a lot of Marines and [other] military right here. In addition to veterans, there are also people who are currently serving.”

Paul helped facilitate the USMC Toys for Tots effort in Branford in 2015 and is happy to become further involved in the community with this year’s parade. He wants citizens can see the face of today’s Marine.

“We are the face of the Marine Corps; we’re ambassadors. So when you see me, your assumption is I’m the Marine Corps, and we try to foster that. I’ll take every chance I get to set the example and set the standard for what’s expected of a Marine, because there is an expectation, and one Marine can let the whole expectation down.

“We also want to build that bond with communities that might otherwise not see us,” he says. “Some people might think of the military as just warriors. We’re normal people, we have wives and kids. I go to Six Flags just like you do. I just train differently; my day is different.”

Since 2014, Paul has served as inspector-instructor first sergeant for active duty staff training U.S. Marine reservists from southern Connecticut at New Haven’s USMC Reserve Center, Maintenance Services Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 25.

A Rhode Island native, Paul joined the USMC right out of high school in 1997 and is nearing his 20th year in service.

“I graduated high school in June and shipped off to boot camp in July,” he says. “I joined post-Gulf War. I think I joined for patriotism, more than anything. All my friends went to [college] and the easy route would have been to go to college—I had straight A’s and I wasn’t stressing about anything. Probably now-a-days, people join and want to protect their country and fight terrorism. They were affected by 9/11. I just wanted to do something different, something larger than yourself.”

Following boot camp and training, he began earning promotions and was selected for two high profile assignments in the Middle East. In 1998, he served with Interim Marine Corps Security Force Co. in Bahrain, followed by participating in operations Southern Watch, Desert Fox, and Desert Thunder.

In 2001, Paul was stateside for duty as a physical security and tactics instructor when the 9/11 terrorist attacks broke out. The training base in Chesapeake, Virginia, was in close proximity to the attack on the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

“Like every military base, we went into threat condition Delta,” the military’s most serious threat assessement level, on Sept. 11, 2001. “After that, it was constant deployments,” he says.

Paul was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan to conduct site security and threat assessment of the U.S. Embassy. Following that, he served two separate deployments for Operation Iraqi Freedom in Baghdad. In 2011, he deployed with Operation Enduring Freedom to Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

“My company in Baghdad was in charge of going in and securing the entire Green Zone,” he says. “We provided security for Republican Guard Palace, which is what everyone would call the embassy, before they built the embassy.”

Being in the Green Zone during the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom meant Paul’s family, including his wife, were barraged with daily news of the latest bombings, attacks, and other actions.

“When I was in Baghdad in 2005, we were two years into it and it was all that was on the news. There were definitely some explosions where I was closer than I’d like to be. They’d be on the news and when I’d speak to her on the phone she’d say, ‘Were you near there?’ And I’d say, ‘Yeah, I was right there.’ So it was stressful for her.”

Today, Paul wears a bracelet with the name of his Afghanistan squad leader. Marines can wear a bracelet for those missing in action (MIA) or killed in action (KIA).

“He passed in Afghanistan by an IED [improvised explosive device],” says Paul. “I actually got to go to Arlington [National Cemetery) to his grave, and see the flowers on it during a Memorial Day time frame. It was pretty random. I just walking through and then I saw it out, of nowhere.”

Paul says he’s grateful to the Branford Veterans Parade Committee for ensuring that the town not only remembers its fallen soldiers with ceremonies and a Memorial Day Parade, but by taking the time to decorate the Branford graves of every soldier as part of that remembrance.

“We’re going out at 6:45 a.m. in the morning, me and a bunch of older gentlemen, visiting military graves,” says Paul. “That’s how Memorial Day started, with the Civil War [veterans]. It doesn’t happen in every community.”

Despite the short time the Hannaway family has been a part of the Branford community, “We love it,” says Paul.

“It’s not a like a military town, where people are always coming and going and no one knows anyone longer than three years. Here, the kids are born together and go to school together until they graduate, just like when I grew up in Rhode Island. My kids see that normalness and community, and they see the Town Green with things like the Jazz Fest in the summer. In the south, they don’t have town greens. It definitely brings the town together. You can see everyone knows everyone else here.”

While not as many in town may know Paul by name, when he’s in uniform, this 6’ 2” first sergeant with the broad smile gets noticed—and often thanked—for his service. To date, Paul’s personal decorations include the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with two gold stars in lieu of 3rd award, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with three gold stars in lieu of 4th award, and the Combat Action Ribbon.

“I always tell my Marines, if people say, ‘Thanks for your service,’ be sure to say, ‘Thanks for your support.’ Not every community supports the military, so you always thank them,” says Paul. “And I always tell them, ‘If you see someone wearing a World War II hat or a Vietnam hat, go thank them for their service.’ The younger guys think it’s weird because they’re in the service, so why thank them? Veterans should be thanked—that guy who was in Vietnam, nobody thanked him when he came home. I’ve had some Vietnam veterans tell me, ‘You’re the first person who’s ever thanked me.’”

Paul says he hopes to see even more recognition of the military take root in this community, not just on Memorial Day or Veterans Day, but as part of an ongoing effort to incorporate the dedicated efforts of military service people into the fabric of Branford’s everyday life.

“I don’t see why someone who is a veteran and lives in Branford couldn’t be recognized annually, like establishing some Hall of Valor, with a Veterans’ Advisory Committee that votes to select [nominees]. Because then, your local military and veterans will know someone cares about them, and it’s important to the town. Maybe it’s just a plaque on a wall. Just something to say, every day, ‘We didn’t forget about you. We know what you did and we thank you for your service.’”