Irving Chappell has marched in the Memorial Day parade in Cape Elizabeth since he moved to the community as a decorated World War II veteran in 1955. He has missed eight or ten parades over the years for various reasons, but this will be the first year he will not march in the parade because he is physically unable.

Chappell, 86, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease last year. He made the mile-and-half walk down Route 77 in 2004, but his wife and granddaughter needed to help him to the car at the parade’s end. The walk really tired him out, his wife Priscilla said.

On Monday, May 30, Cape Elizabeth, like towns across the country, will hold a Memorial Day parade with old and new veterans marching down the streets decked out in their veterans hats and jackets decorated with ribbons. Veterans’ groups will place flags at the graves of dead soldiers. “In Flanders Fields” will be read and “Taps” played – all in honor of those American men and women who have died in service of their country.

“That parade is the best thing in the world,” Chappell said. This year, as Chappell watches those veterans marching along the same route he had marched for decades, one thing will be going through his mind – “how lucky they are.”

He and his comrades-in-arms are getting rarer: More than 1,000 World War II veterans die every day across the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Parkinson’s has taken its toll on Chappell over the past year. He can still walk around the house, and he can make it to his mailbox and back, “but I can’t make that mile and half,” he said.

Chappell said the disease is awful, he has lost his balance, he has to deal with all sorts of doctors, a host of pills and they’ve needed to add handles to help him make it up a few steps in his foyer. He has fallen a few times, but Chappell has not given up. He said the exercise is good for him.

“I’m not going to get to the point when I’m sitting in a chair all day, no way,” Chappell said.

Making a veteran

Edward Irving Chappell joined the Maine National Guard as a private in 1940, when “war was still oceans away.” He lived with his family in Biddeford, was working with his father in real estate and was dating a young student at Westbrook College named Priscilla Goodwin.

In early 1941 Chappell and his unit, the 103rd Infantry, was sent to Florida for what was supposed to be a year of basic training.

“What if we had known that one year would stretch to nearly five?” Chappell wrote in his memoirs. “What if we had been able to look at the future – jungles of Guadalcanal, New Georgia swamps, Banzai attacks, to Munda, a Japanese bastion, malaria, hepatitis, hookworm, jaundice and the inferno of White Beach Three at Luzon?”

That promised “one year” was robbed from Chappell and thousands of other young men and women when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. He got Christmas leave and married Priscilla Goodwin on Dec. 19.

By the time the 103rd Infantry were sent to California en route to the Pacific theater, Chappell had risen in rank to first lieutenant. Chappell arrived in California on Sept. 9, 1942, the day after Priscilla gave birth to their first son in Mississippi. Chappell would not meet his son for another three and a half years.

Chappell fought on Guadalcanal, Vangunu Island and the Philippines among others. He took part in the occupation of Japan after that country’s surrender, rising in rank to major by the time he was sent home. His decorations during the war included a Silver Star awarded for exposing himself to enemy fire while leading a tank attack from the front in the Philippine Islands, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts for injuries sustained during combat.

Homecoming and beyond

He returned to Maine, his wife and the son he had never met. Priscilla remembers being afraid to answer the door when she knew it was him: After almost three and a half years in the South Pacific, “of course he was different,” Priscilla wrote in their memoirs. “From twenty-two to twenty-six years old, we lived the war, and it changed our lives completely.”

Chappell and his family initially bought a one-room schoolhouse in Biddeford for $700 and renovated it into a two-bedroom home. Chappell took part in the reorganization of the Maine National Guard after the war and formed the battalion that would be housed at the armory in Saco. In 1949 Chappell was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 1955, the family moved to Cape Elizabeth, where Chappell was civil defense director at Fort Williams for 26 years. In the following 50 years Chappell also became heavily involved with many facets of the community. Chappell retired from the National Guard in 1964 as a lieutenant colonel.

Today, the walls of Irving Chappell’s office are covered with the evidence of a life dedicated to service and civic involvement. Plaques, certificates and letters of recommendation hang in their frames along with watercolor paintings he does in his spare time.

An old, worn Japanese sword Chappell picked up at Dingalan Bay in the Philippines hangs above the window; a plaque presented to him for his time spent as Cape Elizabeth Town Council chairman from 1993-94 is nearby, as is a certificate for his long-time involvement with the Heifer Project International, which brought him all over the world delivering cattle to people in Third World countries who can’t afford livestock.

Chappell has been involved in St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, the American Legion, the Freemasons, Cape Elizabeth municipal government – including five years on the Town Council – and many other organizations.

In 1989, the Town Council presented Chappell with the Robert T. Gould Award for Outstanding Citizenship and Community Service, honoring his 14 years as a scoutmaster for the Boy Scouts of America and seven years as Memorial Day parade chairman.

Jim Cox, the parade’s chairman today, said Chappell can still participate in the parade that he organized for seven years. A convertible is available to the veterans who can no longer make the walk. But, Chappell would still much rather be marching along with the other veterans.

“Maybe I’ll surprise everyone and march this year,” he said. His wife Priscilla just shook her head and said the decision is up to him.

Irving Chappell looks over his scrapbook of pictures from his service in World War II.