Leominster White Cross Ceremony honors 56 service members missing since World War II

White Cross Twilight Ceremony · Meeting of May 22, 2026

Leominster honored 56 missing and unrecovered service members at its annual White Cross Twilight Ceremony on the Friday before Memorial Day. Mayor Dean Mazzarella addressed a crowd at the Veterans Center, connecting the evening to a morning school visit where second graders had presented on the ceremonial white table tradition. City Councilwoman Pauline Cormier read a tribute researched by City Councilor Mark Badanza focusing on Seaman First Class Bernard W.

Jocelyn, a Leominster native killed when the USS Franklin was struck by a Japanese bomber in March 1945, roughly 50 miles off Japan's coast; Jocelyn was among 798 sailors killed and his body was never recovered. The 56 crosses represent five men from World War I, 48 from World War II, two from Korea, and one from Vietnam. The ceremony concluded with Chief Master Sergeant Larry McNeil, retired, strewing flowers onto Rockwell Pond as a symbolic tribute to those lost overseas.

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Source: the White Cross Twilight Ceremony meeting of May 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.