Iwo Jima Re-Enactment Brings Tears, Cheers

Emotionally powerful for all of its 40 seconds, a re-enactment of the raising of the U.S. flag at Iwo Jima brought a crowd in Santa Ana to its feet Monday morning--with young and old crying, applauding and moving to the strains of the Marine Corps anthem.

Six Camp Pendleton Marines dressed in World War II uniforms climbed onto papier mache rocks, grasped the flag and propped it at a 45-degree angle to form a scene that photographer Joe Rosenthal captured on Feb. 23, 1945, on the Pacific island.

“That was just great,” said a teary-eyed but cheerful Richard Crandall, 60, of Whittier after the demonstration that concluded the two-hour Memorial Day ceremony in downtown Santa Ana.

“All veterans are No. 1 in my book,” said the former Army technical engineer who was stationed at Okinawa during the Korean War, “no matter what war.”

Others, too, attending the remembrance near the Orange County Veterans Memorial were overcome with emotion.

Veteran Choked Up

One man propped himself on a cane, adjusted his AMVET cap and wiped away tears as two choral groups sang “God Bless America.” When approached, the veteran squinted his reddened, puffy eyes and said hoarsely: “I can’t talk right now, I’m sorry.”

The veterans were among about 200 people of many nationalities and ages who gathered Monday at the Civic Center Plaza for a Memorial Day service organized by AMVET, a national veterans association with eight chapters in Orange and Los Angeles counties. It was one of many Memorial Day services held throughout the Southland on Monday to commemorate the veterans who gave their lives in World War I, World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

The group’s first service last year drew a larger crowd, said an AMVET spokesmen, who added that the chill, windy weather probably had discouraged some folks.

“I think the weather scared some away, and there’s so much going on today,” said Hal Camp, AMVET program chairman and the morning’s master of ceremonies.

The service began at 10 a.m. and featured a color guard and songs performed by the colorfully outfitted Vietnamese Choral Ensemble and the Saints Choir.

Some Fled Coolness

A brisk breeze sweeping through the plaza appeared to chase a few people home early on during the service, which included a colorful spectacle of red, white and blue wreaths and towering banners.

Alone in a back row, swaying to “America the Beautiful,” a silver-haired couple huddled together in a patchwork quilt with a baby sucking a bottle in their laps. A young Vietnamese woman shivered in a folding chair near the rear of the crowd, flanked by her twin sons, one pulling at her long, black hair.

“This year, we stressed the Vietnamese and Latino communities” in the services, said Camp, explaining that “over 10%” of Orange County veterans who have died in military service were of Latin descent.

The traditional placing of the wreaths on the four-sided Orange County Veterans Memorial was accompanied by statements from representatives of the League of United Latin American Citizens and Le Chinh Long, a Vietnamese community leader.

To the strains of an accordian, the somber-faced Vietnamese Choral Ensemble--made up of young women in bright red tunics and flowing white pants--sang “Viet Nam, Viet Nam,” which had been the national anthem of their country. The Vietnamese community leader then spoke, expressing the “deep gratitude” he and fellow Vietnamese refugees feel for the veterans and their “heroic deeds” in “fighting communism” and thanked Americans everywhere for “encouraging people all over” to do the same.

A bearded Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) gave a lengthy, fiery talk titled, “This is My Country,” which was met with repeated applause.

There were 243 blossoms circling the monument in honor of the Californians still listed as missing in action or suspected to be prisoners of war. Judie Taber, Southern California chairman of the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, told the crowd that 2,379 U.S. servicemen and 42 civilians are still unaccounted for, a grim statistic that visibly shook some in attendance Monday.

“We remain hopeful that we will have a return of them,” Taber said.

Ngoc Diep, 52 of Westminster, a pop singer who performs at Vietnamese community events, listened quietly at the edge of the crowd, dressed for the service in a sport coat and tie.

“I’m very upset to see and to hear that some Americans are missing in action in Vietnam,” Diep said.

“The prisoner of war. I’m so sad about that. We are proud of the American GI that helped my country, and are missing in Vietnam.”

Born in Saigon, where he lived most of his life, Diep served as a petty officer and bandleader in South Vietnam’s navy until Saigon fell in 1975 and became Ho Chi Minh City. He fled in a boat, eventually reaching this country. His mother, wife and three children arrived here 2 1/2 years later. He said his brother-in-law remains in a Communist-run prison camp “somewhere.”

At first, Diep listened silently while Dornan described the fall of South Vietnam as “the blood bath we were afraid of” and told of people believed still held in “gulag-style” prison camps.

Trying to stave off the tears, Diep finally wept openly. “You try very hard,” he began, his voice choked with emotion. “We would like to thank all of you for helping my country, for helping us, and just God Bless you America today.”