The Boomsma family from left, Julia Boomsma, Olivia Boomsma, Greta and Penelope (in front) Boomsma, Mark Boomsma, who built the garage; Charley Boomsma, Maureen Boomsma and Doretta Boomsma.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
RUSSELL — The new Russell-Montgomery Police Department garage on the grounds of the former Russell Elementary School was dedicated to decorated Vietnam veteran Jan “Boomer” Boomsma of Russell who passed away in 2022 and was the father of Mark Boomsma, who built the garage for the town.
A dedication ceremony took place in the new garage, which was dressed up for the occasion with a large American flag on the back wall, seating for members of the community who were all invited, and a display by the podium of artifacts from Boomsma’s tour of duties in Vietnam.
Police Chief Kevin Hennessey thanked everyone for coming. He said when he first interviewed for the job in 2017, he told the selectmen his outlook was to further and professionalize the department, and said it has been refreshing to have a Board of Selectmen that supports the Police Department.
Hennessey said the town was able to secure a Community Compact grant of $200,000 to build the four-bay garage with the help of state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield), who said he has been with the town “since day one.”
Velis said he believes that one of the most important things he does as a senator is when a municipal partner puts in for a grant, in this case a Community Compact Cabinet Efficiency and Regionalization grant, is for him to support it.
Hennessey said he initially thought the town would go for a prefabricated metal garage to house the town’s cruisers. However, he began looking around and spoke to Blandford builder Mark Boomsma about building a garage from the ground up.
When the town put out an RFP for the building, Boomsma was the low bidder, and the town worked with the accountant to secure additional funding. Hennessey said that everyone has been “blown away” by the professionalism and the minimal costs involved in the build. “Everyone marvels at the garage,” Hennessey said, which will fit all of the town’s cruisers along with the ATV and UTV.
Hennessey said after Boomsma told him about his father, a Vietnam veteran from Russell, “It was an honor to dedicate the garage to his father, Jan ‘Boomer’ Boomsma.”
Mark Boomsma’s sister Julie Boomsma then spoke about her father, who she said moved to Russell from Huntington when he was one years old and grew up on her grandparents’ farm in Woronoco. He graduated from Russell Elementary school and Westfield Vocational School where he studied carpentry and was the school’s 1967 valedictorian.
Jan Boomsma enlisted during the Vietnam War in 1967, and was deployed to Vietnam for 19 months, receiving a 1969 commendation for meritorious service. Honorably discharged in 1970, he lived for a while just over the Russell-Westfield line and commuted into the Hilltowns, where he worked on many buildings before settling in Blandford.
Julie Boomsma said at 40 years old, her father bought a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and rode it for the next 30 years. She said he spoke more often of his service in later years, and looked back on it with pride, and thanked the Russell Board of Selectmen and Hennessey for the honor of the dedication.
Velis said he found her remarks very moving. He said he has represented Russell for four years now, and is “all in,” citing how impressed he was a few years ago when the town’s emergency services delivered meals during a blizzard, to make sure people had a meal.
Velis said the garage was “absolutely beautiful,” admitting he knew nothing about buildings except that it was a “job well done. Stuff like this happens with collaboration. You don’t have to look too hard for the bad things — this is the good stuff,” Velis said.
He then spoke about Jan Boomsma and his legacy. “The way that this country (treated) our Vietnam veterans will go down as one of the biggest black marks in the history of the United States,” Velis said.
He said when he came back from deployment, people would offer to buy him a beer or dinner, but that wasn’t the case for Vietnam veterans, calling their reception “an absolute disgrace.”
Velis said when he returned from his last deployment to Afghanistan in 2018, he landed in Bangor, Maine, where 200 people got off the plane. Velis said 150 to 200 people were lined up on the left and on the right at the airport, all of them “extending a hand to welcome us home. They were all Vietnam vets,” he said.
“There will never be subsequent veterans who will have to go through that again,” Velis said, and thanked the Boomsma family for continuing their father’s legacy.
