‘We remember the people who served who are no longer here.’

The South Bay will honor its military dead Monday--the nation’s Memorial Day. In groups of a few hundred and crowds of several thousand, people will gather at cemeteries, in veterans halls and at military monuments.

They will hear patriotic music, 21-gun salutes and place wreaths at gravesides. Military officers will deliver addresses, combat aircraft will roar overhead and color guards will carry flags.

“We remember the people who served who are no longer here,” said John Devine, a member of the Hawthorne American Legion Post 314 who took part in the battle for Okinawa in World War II. “It’s a patriotic feeling.”

Memorial Day--also known as Decoration Day--springs from an 1860s custom of placing flowers on the graves of Civil War dead. After World War I, the day was set aside to honor the dead of all American wars, as well as their families.

The South Bay’s largest and most spectacular observance will be at 10 a.m. at Green Hills Memorial Park, 27501 S. Western Ave., Rancho Palos Verdes. Before an expected crowd of 1,800, the Marines’ Drum and Bugle Corps will play and the skies will be filled with aircraft, including restored World War II fighter planes. Sky divers will plunge to earth to deliver flags. A waiting Coast Guard helicopter will take off with a floral wreath, dropping it at sea.

“We do one of the largest Memorial Day observances in the country,” said Stephen A. Espolt, Memorial Day chairman for the park, which has been conducting services for four years.

One of the oldest observances in the South Bay will be in Inglewood at 11 a.m., where the city for 42 years has held a service in front of the War Memorial at City Hall Mall, 1 Manchester Blvd. The 16-foot marble obelisk was dedicated in 1948 to honor the World War II military dead from Inglewood and Lennox.

“We get 200 to 250 people,” said Earl Herrold, a retired Army master sergeant and chairman of the event, in which 25 veterans and community organizations participate. He said the late Gen. Omar Bradley attended one year. “It’s become well-known in the local area.”

Another long-established observance is in Hawthorne, where the Hawthorne Veterans Council--made up of the American Legion Post 314, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2975 and World War I Barracks 2615--holds its annual ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Memorial Center, 3901 W. El Segundo Blvd. There will be a reception after the ceremony at the VFW hall, 4563 W. 131st St.

“We honor the veterans who have been there, in foreign countries in the military to protect our country,” said Lois Moore, who is council president and the widow of a Marine Corps pilot. The group is raising funds to build a permanent monument at the Memorial Center honoring all of the armed services.

Several Gardena veterans groups will join in a Memorial Day service at 10 a.m. at Roosevelt Memorial Park Cemetery, 18255 S. Vermont Ave. Gold Star mothers will lay a wreath on a simulated grave representing all war dead.

Later in the day, the Gen. William Stark Rosecrans Post 3261 of the VFW and its Ladies Auxiliary will hold a Memorial Day barbecue from 1 to 6 p.m. at the VFW hall, 1822 W. 162nd St. Donation is $6.

Another Gardena ceremony will be held as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Gardena Nisei Post 1961 holds services at 2 p.m. at their hall, 1964 W. 162nd Street, Gardena. The post is made up of Japanese-American World War II veterans who served in Europe and the Pacific. A highlight of the event will be singing by the choir of the Ahahui O Lili’uokalani Hawaii Civic Club.

In Lomita, the Chamber of Commerce and the Lomita VFW Post 1622 will join in a ceremony at 11 a.m. at City Hall, 24300 Narbonne Ave. An open house and lunch for those attending will follow the ceremony at the VFW hall, 1865 Lomita Blvd.

A wreath-laying ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. at Pacific Crest Cemetery, 2701 182nd St. at Inglewood Ave. A free picnic will follow at the American Legion South Bay Post 184, 412 Camino Real, Redondo Beach.

An entire cemetery, not just the veterans who rest there, will be honored at 11 a.m. as the Wilmington Cemetery is dedicated as a Los Angeles city historical monument during Memorial Day services sponsored by community veterans groups. The cemetery is at 605 East O St. off Pacific Coast Highway.

The 130-year-old cemetery, which contains the remains of seven men who fought in the Civil War, was designated a city monument in January. At the ceremony Monday, a bench, with an appropriate plaque attached, will be presented by the Wilmington Historical Society.

To those who served in America’s wars and remember them, Memorial Day is a sacred time. “The highlight of the organization itself is to honor the dead, and care for those dependents left behind,” said Masao Tanino, a World War II veteran and chaplain of the Gardena Nisei VFW group.

“The significance of Memorial Day is that the country stops and remembers that the freedoms that we have in this country were not free,” said Capt. Gerald W. Dunne, Long Beach U.S. Naval Station commander, who will speak at the Inglewood observance. “There are always the bullies out there ready and willing to try to dominate if someone is not willing to stand up to them. Memorial Day recognizes those who have done that and given the ultimate sacrifice.”

Some note, however, that audiences at annual ceremonies get older every year. “The younger generation is just not as interested in memorial services as older people,” Herrold said.

That’s why Green Hills tries to make a family day out of its Memorial Day service.

“We want to make it interesting for younger people so they’ll learn about it. The older people die off and there’s no one to pass the torch on to. This gives us a way of telling them what happened, why we have Memorial Day,” Espolt said.