Varied Rites Mark a Day of Memories for Veterans

Russian veterans of World War II, some of whom turned back the Nazis in the streets of Leningrad and Stalingrad, sat elbow-to-elbow in a West Hollywood Park singing “God Bless America” along with gay veterans of the Vietnam War.

Across town, more Vietnam veterans got together in Griffith Park and said they would push for a cluster of Vietnam War monuments there. In Montebello and the City of Commerce, veterans of four wars marched, and in Tarzana, a former Vietnamese Army officer hosted a gathering for veterans of the war that made him a refugee.

They were all part of a colorful lineup of pre-Veterans Day celebrations around the Los Angeles area Sunday, reflecting the city’s dramatically different life styles and underscoring what all of the veterans had in common: service in four wars in this century.

Parade Today

Since Nov. 11, the traditional date of Veterans Day, falls on a Monday--today--this year, most celebrations were held during the weekend. Today there will be a Salute to the Armed Forces parade from the Coliseum to Patriotic Hall at 18th and Figueroa streets, beginning at 1 p.m..

West Hollywood’s Veterans Day parade, the first one in the new city, wound along Santa Monica and San Vicente boulevards to a bandstand in West Hollywood County Park.

Several Russian veterans of World War II, some of whom said they fought Hitler’s armies on the streets of Leningrad and Stalingrad, sat next to a number of gay veterans of the Vietnam War and other veterans of this century’s two world wars and the Korean War.

Taking note of the gay life style of West Hollywood, Secretary of State March Fong Eu told the gathering that “America is for everyone”--a place where people are not judged by “their heritage or life style . . . or the person with whom they sleep.”

Among those listening to the Great American Yankee Freedom Band and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles was Fred Makarov, 70, who recalled in broken English that he fought the Nazis in Stalingrad as a Soviet artillery officer. He wore several Russian army medals on the lapel of his light brown suit.

Picnic in the Park

The ceremony was “very good, very beautiful,” said Makarov, who attended with fellow members of a group of Russian emigre veterans.

In Griffith Park, about two dozen Vietnam veterans, some dressed in combat fatigues, gathered around two wooden picnic tables. George Reedy, 39, a Hollywood writer who was in an Army logistics unit in Vietnam, said the group was pushing for a cluster of Vietnam memorials in a field near the merry-go-round.

He said one monument should be similar to the one in Washington, which shows three American GIs near a wall displaying the names of more than 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam.

In addition, he said, there should be a statue of a soldier standing on one foot with his hands bound behind him, to underscore how American soldiers were “stifled” from fighting the war by a Washington bureaucracy.

He said Los Angeles was the logical place for a Vietnam War monument complex because the state was a major departure point for Vietnam and because so many Vietnam veterans live in California.

Nearby stood Bob Galbreath, 46, of Los Angeles, a former B-57 bomber navigator and bombardier, who said he flew 134 missions over Vietnam in the 1965-66 period. “I felt I needed to go to something (like this) today to bridge my feeling of being alone with my (Vietnam War) problems,” said Galbreath.

Tuan Vinh, a former South Vietnamese Army officer, offered free Vietnamese beer to any American Vietnam veterans at his Tarzana restaurant. About 30 showed up to sing songs, swap tales and see color slides of the land they fought for.

“We always remember the time we were in the service,” Vinh said. “It is engrained in our daily thinking and nightly dreaming. We may suffer with it, but we are proud of it.” VETERANS DAY Today is Veterans Day, which honors all veterans of the armed forces. The observance began in 1919 as Armistice Day and became Veterans Day in 1954.

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