Memorial Day reflections

Vietnam War veteran Pete Hernandez listens with a flag in his hat during the Memorial Day observance at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

World War ll airplanes fly over the Memorial Day observances at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Georgia Davis trims the grass around her grandparent’s grave prior to Memorial Day observance at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

With his pipe and rifle, Peter Fantanili with the Ft. Tejon Historical Assn. strolls past headstones prior to Memorial Day observances at Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood.   (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

William Brooks, 91, center, a World War II veteran who survived a prisoner of war camp in Germany, and Tom Crosby, 78, right, a Navy WWII veteran who survived three years in a Japanese POW camp, salute as the San Diego Young Marines present the colors during the inaugural Memorial Day ceremony at the new Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Brig. Gen. Robert L. Cardenas, retired from the Air Force, delivers the keynote speech during the first Memorial Day ceremony at the new Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Tom Bevers, 86, of Ramona, a WWII veteran, pays his repects to his late wife of 65 years, Clara Bevers, before a Memorial Day ceremony at the new Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego. “I’ve been coming here weekly because I miss her,” Bevers said. “It’s all I have left ... a visitation.”  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Red, white and blue flowers are placed on the gravestone of Robert Worden, who served in the Marines during the Korean War, during the inaugural Memorial Day ceremony at the new Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Jackelynn Freund, 8, of San Diego adds flowers -- some of them picked from her garden -- to the flag-bedecked headstone of her grandmother, Navy veteran Jessie Coats, during the Memorial Day ceremony at the new Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego.  (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Richard Madeira of Veterans For Peace, Long Beach, and Emely Velasquez, 17, of Hawaiian Gardens, a member of Tracy Continuation School’s Peace Club, place luminarias next to approximately 400 crosses along six blocks of Bluff Park in Long Beach, honoring teenage soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan,  (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)