Visions of Peace Mark Honors for Military Heroes

Memorial Day was mostly quiet in Southern California.

Bugle calls and rifle volleys echoed from cemeteries. There were brief but violent thunderstorms along the coastal foothills and snow showers in the mountains. More than 2,000 people were arrested for drunk driving throughout the state . . . and there were 36 highway deaths.

But skies were mostly sunny, and speeches--on a day dedicated especially to national remembrance of the 37 sailors who died aboard the guided-missile frigate Stark--turned strongly to thoughts of peace and the needs of a peaceful world.

“Let us pray,” Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley said in an address to about 800 people attending services at the Veterans Administration National Cemetery in Westwood, “for the day when no more monuments or markers will be needed for the graves of American service people killed in hostile action or in peace-keeping assignments half a world away.”

‘Ultimate Sacrifice’

“Thirty-seven of our sailors met their death in that tragedy,” Bradley said. “It is another demonstration that courageous men and women of this nation preserved liberty by being willing to give the ultimate sacrifice--their lives--in defense of this nation and the freedom we enjoy.”

Boy and Girl Scouts had decorated each of the cemetery’s 76,500 graves with its own tiny American flag, and the miniature banners waved faint accompaniment as the Edendale Volunteer Militia fired its traditional volleys of salute and the Air National Guard Band of Southern California played the music of martial requiem.

The occasion is one of the least known and most frequently misunderstood of American holidays.

Originally called Decoration Day, it was first--unofficially--observed in 1868, when Gen. John Logan, commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order to his organization designating it as a day on which the graves of Civil War soldiers were to be tended and decorated.

The custom later was embodied in law, and has since been extended to honor the memory of all the nation’s war dead--and many Southern Californians marked the day in traditional fashion.

In addition to services at the National Cemetery, representatives of a dozen separate veterans organizations took part in Memorial Day ceremonies at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Glendale.

Bishop Armando Ochoa, auxiliary bishop of the San Fernando Pastoral Region, celebrated Mass at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery and Mausoleum.

Veterans of Foreign Wars, Conejo Valley Post 3866, and American Legion Post 515 conducted services in memory of deceased veterans at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Roger Gilson was the principal speaker during the annual services of the Hollywood Post of the American Legion for deceased entertainers at Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery.

Other veterans groups joined in services at Lincoln Memorial Park in Compton, where the main speaker was Air Force Lt. Col. Jake Adams. And in Santa Ana, Marines from Camp Pendleton re-enacted the Iwo Jima flag-raising during ceremonies at the Orange County Veterans Memorial in Civic Center Plaza.

Elsewhere, there were demonstrations against warlike toys and pollution.

The Los Angeles County Lifeguard Assn. sponsored a demonstration at the Venice Pavilion against pollution in Santa Monica Bay, with Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) as featured speaker, and peace activists were scheduled to join with the National Stop War Toys Campaign for a candle-lighting ceremony at Venice beach in remembrance of a man killed by a sheriff’s deputy when he pointed a realistic toy pistol in the officer’s direction April 7.

Beaches from Zuma to Newport were crowded--but not to overflowing--for the end of the holiday weekend.

Lifeguards estimated that less than a million people braved low-60s temperatures and early morning clouds to spend their day beside the ocean. Parking lots were heavily patronized--but not full by early afternoon.

Scattered heavy thunderstorms late in the afternoon--some of them accompanied by hail--disrupted power for about 6,000 customers, according to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, primarily in the San Fernando Valley and Laurel Canyon. As a result of outages in South-Central Los Angeles, police were called to major intersections to direct traffic.

In the mountains, snow fell at Wrightwood, in the Cajon Pass and on Mt. Wilson and Mt. Baldy, accompanied by winds up to 40 m.p.h., police and fire officials reported. Sheriff’s deputies in the Antelope Valley said sleet and hail fell in Leona Valley and around Lake Hughes.

A travelers advisory was in effect for most of the day in the deserts and mountains of Southern California, and winds were clocked at 44 m.p.h. in the Barstow-Daggett area, while Imperial reported blowing dust and gravel born by a 38-m.p.h. west wind.

The National Safety Council said 210 lives were lost in traffic accidents throughout the nation during the first 60 hours of the holiday weekend that began at 6 p.m. Friday--a rise of 13 deaths from the figure for the same period last year.

But in California, the Highway Patrol said only 36 deaths were recorded during the first 60 hours--four fewer than the 40 on record by the 60th hour of the Memorial Day weekend in 1986.

Drunk-driving arrests were up, however: CHP spokesman Kent Milton said his records show 2,430 arrests involving alcohol by 6 a.m. Monday this year, compared to 2,158 for the same period in 1986.