Among the graves, a salute to bravery and sacrifice

The family of Staff Sgt. Javier Zamora, who survived a tour of duty in Iraq as a helicopter door gunner only to die in a 2007 car crash after his return home to Hemet, sat clustered around his bouquet-covered gravestone Monday at the West Los Angeles National Cemetery.

“The military was his life,” Alicia Oliva, a sister, said of the 40-year-old Army National Guardsman and father of three, who had planned to return for a second tour in Iraq. “It makes you realize this is where they belong.”

Zamora’s siblings and father were among hundreds of other proud relatives and friends of military veterans — and many others simply paying respects — who crowded onto the flag-filled burial ground to hear Hollywood stars and political leaders extol the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women interred there.

Serving as master of ceremonies was actor Jon Voight, a U.S. Army reservist who won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of a paraplegic Vietnam War veteran in the 1978 film “Coming Home.” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined other dignitaries who paid tribute to fallen soldiers, sailors, Guard troops and Marines.

Morton Schecter, 86, who flew as the rear gunner aboard a B-24 Liberator on 38 World War II missions from England, and his friend Hy Arnesty, 87, who fought in the Philippines, said they counted themselves among the lucky ones.

“You had to be lucky,” said Schecter, adding that he survived D-day and other forays without a scratch whereas he watched his best friend get shot down, never to be seen again.

The crowd cheered as five restored AT-6s of the Van Nuys-based Condor Squadron flew over the event and then came back around for another pass.

A cooling breeze under the cloudless, sunny sky put a smart snap in the U.S. flag that was raised behind the stage. The stars-and-stripes motif was repeated down below on countless hats, scarves, blankets and shirts.

Kelly Redican of Burbank wore a blue sun dress with white trim and polka dots. She scampered after her son Conor, 2, and daughter Riley, 6, as they romped amid the gravestones, blissfully unaware of the pain and sacrifices those markers represented. According to family lore, she said, her relatives had served in every conflict since the Revolutionary War.

Showing up on Memorial Day “is the least we can do,” said her husband, John Redican, a former Marine corporal who participated in the Gulf War in 1991. “We want to show our kids that some have given the ultimate sacrifice.”

The ceremony’s theme was “Remembering the War Correspondent,” and celebrities including Robert Forster and Lee Purcell read samples of the battleground reporting by or about such greats as Edward R. Murrow, Ernest Hemingway and Ernie Pyle.

In a quieter patch of the cemetery removed from the main festivities, a fresh gravesite had joined scores of others from the 1930s. Most of the older graves remained bare. But half a dozen bouquets and a large star-shaped balloon sat before the bright-white marker of Pfc. Jin Su Ong, a participant in “Iraqi Freedom,” born July 6, 1987, died Jan. 4, 2009. He was 21 when he died. The stone’s tribute read: “Beloved son and brother.”

martha.groves@latimes.com

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