veterans

For eight years, Kathryn King served in the U.S. Army Reserves. Now, based out of a stout brick building on Blue Hill Avenue, she has a new mission, focused on supporting and affirming the dignity of veterans in the Boston area.

Before the Veteran’s Day program began on Guild Row, Robert Santiago, the city’s commissioner of Veteran’s Affairs, took a peek at the fenced-off General Edward O. Gourdin and African American Veterans Park — a triangle-shaped parcel of green space at the intersection of Malcolm X Boulevard and Washington Street.

Growing up, Brenda Samuels knew her father, Jose Santiago, was a big deal in the military. But as a lieutenant colonel with the 82nd Airborne Division, a unit that specialized in covert operations, he wasn’t at liberty to discuss with his family the operations in which he was involved.