VETERAN'S DAY 2011: Abner Oakes, Chairman of the Hamden Veterans Commission

U.S. Navy veteran Abner Oakes said he thinks it is important for children to know about the sacrifices military service members made for them.

The 77-year-old Hamden resident is chairman of the town’s Veterans Commission, which advises town officials about the needs of veterans and helps plan events commemorating veterans.

One event that is coming up is Freedom Day, which will take place at Hamden Middle School on Thursday, Nov. 10, the day before Veterans Day.

Students at the middle school have been selling bracelets to raise money to construct a Fisher House next to the VA Hospital in West Haven to make it easier for veterans’ families to visit them while they are at the hospital.

Oakes said a number of veterans will go to the middle school on Freedom Day to give talks about their military service experiences in war and peacetime.

"I think we have to let the kids know about their heritage," he said.

He said he comes from a military family. His brother, Carleton Miller, was a Navy aviator who is listed as MIA during the Vietnam War.

After graduating from Darmouth College, Oakes served as a navigator on a P2V anti-submarine warfare plane along the U.S. East Coast and in the Mediterranean Sea from 1956 to 1960.

He recalls spotting Russian submarines cruising off the coast of Maine. "They were snooping on what we were doing," he said.

He then spent 22 years in the Navy Reserve before retiring at the rank of commander. In the Navy Reserve he was in charge of the Blue and Gold Program that encourages high school students to apply for entry in the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Other activities of the Veterans Commission include planning the Memorial Day Parade in Hamden and the Veterans Awareness Day at Quinnipiac University on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend.

Last year, Oakes was inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame.