Montrose celebrates 50th anniversary of Vietnam War Memorial
On a river 9 miles away from the border between North and South Vietnam in 1968, Steve Pierce operated a boat that transported troops to battlegrounds as they took gunfire from the Viet Cong. He knew many of the troops would not come back.
“I was too young to realize how dangerous it was at the time,” he said. “A lot of those Marines I took up the river never came home. They sacrificed their lives in Vietnam. And you think about that when you’re going on the boat.”
Knowing so many of his “brothers” were lost, it makes Pierce proud that now, 50 years later, his community still honors their lives with a Vietnam memorial wall on the corner of Honolulu Avenue and Ocean View Boulevard in Montrose. He and several others, including the executive director of the Montrose Chamber of Commerce, the Local American Legion Post 288 and staff from the Crescenta Valley Weekly organized a 50th anniversary event Saturday that included a flag-folding ceremony and musical performances.
The event honored the late Vito Cannella, a Montrose community member and immigrant who, though not a veteran, dedicated his life to the country. Cannella, who passed away last year, wrote a letter to President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 asking him to make the week of June 14 National Flag Week. The request was approved, making Montrose the birthplace of Flag Week, Pierce said.
Montrose resident Bronwyn Schramm, who visits the memorial daily, saying a prayer for her “boys,” spoke at the event. She recited the names of 24 community members who died serving their country, without needing to look at her notes.
Pierce, now 74, said he was one of the lucky ones. He got to come home and was received by his friends and family lovingly, unlike many other Vietnam veterans. But it hurt him to learn that the country didn’t receive his peers as well.
“They didn’t choose to go over there and kill people,” he said. “They chose to serve their country.”
Pierce added he remembers hearing bits and pieces on the radio about the turmoil that was happening in the United States in the ’60s, including the Watts riots near his hometown of Inglewood.
“It’s not that much different than what we’re going through today with President Trump and his administration,” he said.
Built in 1968, the Vietnam Memorial wall in Montrose was one of the first, if not the first, memorials to honor Vietnam veterans. It makes Pierce happy to be a part of a community that respects and remembers its veterans the way Montrose residents do, he said.
Alejandra.ReyesVelarde@latimes.com
