Victims remembered from Civil War to Iraq and Afghanistan

Los Angeles An Oscar-winning actor, an Olympic gold medallist and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa were among the hundreds who turned out on a sun-spangled Monday at the Los Angeles National Cemetery to honour the fallen of conflicts from the Civil War to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“It’s a heart-wrenching experience to stand among these fallen heroes... so many and so young,” said Jon Voight, the master of ceremonies for the cemetery’s 123rd annual Memorial Day programme and winner of an Academy Award for his role as a paraplegic Vietnam veteran in the 1978 film Coming Home. “We must find ways to support them... and their families... They must know they can count on us for everything.”

Calling her “the original Rosie the Riveter,” Voight introduced Bea Abrams Cohen, a diminutive Westchester resident who at 102 is thought to be California’s oldest female veteran. The crowd that greeted her with an ovation included Civil War re-enactors, children of all ages, legless veterans in wheelchairs and people who simply wanted to pay their respects on a dazzlingly sunny day when a gentle breeze rippled the small American flags that Boy and Girl Scouts had placed at each of the 85,000-plus grave markers.

Also drawing enthusiastic applause was Rafer Johnson, 76, a UCLA-trained Olympic decathlete who won a silver medal in 1956 and a gold medal in 1960. Sitting in the shade of a tree, Johnson said the scene of surviving veterans and supportive audience members gave him “hope that things will be just the way they should be.”

As a Coast Guard helicopter circled overhead, Villaraigosa talked of remembering the “uncommon valour” of those who sacrificed all for their nation. “Today we mourn the dead and we honour the living,” he said.

Counting himself lucky to be among the living was David Much, 43, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who fought in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He cycled to the cemetery with his family from nearby Brentwood Glen. His wife, Tamberley, said their nine-year-old twins, Lexi and Max, were born a week after their father left for Iraq. Riding in a Humvee in chaotic Nasiriya, where crowds were looting and pillaging government buildings in defiance of dictator Saddam Hussain, Much feared that he might never meet his children. Now an investment advisor, he said he and his wife viewed it as vital to teach their children “that freedom’s not free”.

Red, white and blue

Flyovers by the Van Nuys-based Condor Squadron elicited cheering from the crowd, for whom the de rigueur style of the day consisted of red, white and blue, star-spattered anything and everything — from earrings to hats to ties to scarves to umbrellas to totes and tattoos.

The Los Angeles National Cemetery event was one of many Memorial Day observances throughout the region. Councilman Tom LaBonge spoke at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills, and Lt. Michael Thornton, a retired US Navy Seal, gave the keynote speech at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes.

One of the largest celebrations was at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, where a Marine general asked the crowd of more than 2,000 to honour families of current military personnel who have endured ten years of war, separation and worry.

Lt Gen Thomas Waldhauser, in his keynote address at the 112th annual Memorial Service and Day of Remembrance, said the public should remember those families who have lived through multiple deployments and “the fear of receiving a knock on the door with the worst of all news”.

Heroism is not a thing of the past, said Waldhauser, commander of Camp Pendleton’s 1st Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Central Command. He cited the example of Marine Sgt Joseph Wrightsman, who died July 18, 2010, in a vain attempt to save an Afghan police officer who had slipped into the swift current of the Helmand River in Afghanistan.

Fort Rosecrans, with interments predating California’s statehood, is the final resting place for more than 100,000 military veterans and their family members. Twenty-three Medal of Honour recipients are buried there, on the rolling hills of Point Loma. Some in the crowd wore uniforms, medals or other insignia from decades ago. Wearing dress blues was Marine Cpl. Cody Elliott, 22, from Pismo Beach, Calif., who lost his left leg to a roadside bomb in Sangin, Afghanistan. He now has a prosthetic leg and walks with a cane. “I’m just here,” he said, “to support my brothers who didn’t come home.”