COUNTYWIDE : Military, Civilians to Honor War Dead
Events to commemorate Memorial Day are being held throughout Orange County this holiday weekend.
Volunteers are needed today to help place crosses at the graves of about 5,000 veterans at Fullerton’s Loma Vista Memorial Park in preparation for a Memorial Day ceremony.
Monday’s 10 a.m. ceremony, the 52nd year of honoring the veterans buried at Loma Vista, will pay special tribute to the military chaplains who provided spiritual solace to soldiers on the front line during wartime. Guest speaker will be Maj. Gen. Norris L. Einertson, chief of chaplains for the U.S. Army.
Before the ceremony, the American Veterans Memorial Assn. is seeking volunteers to come to the park beginning at 8 a.m. today to help decorate the graves. Volunteers are asked to bring wheelbarrows, wagons or carts to help carry the crosses and flags.
Volunteers also will be needed Tuesday to help remove the crosses and flags and place them back in storage.
To volunteer, call Mary Elliott at 521-1867 or Don Sadler at (213) 697-8331.
In other events:
- People with tattered or otherwise unpresentable American flags may have them retired in a ceremony at noon Sunday at the American Legion, Orange Post No. 132, 142 S. Lemon St.
A 21-gun salute by the American Legion members will highlight the ceremony in which each flag is placed in a canister and burned. The ceremony follows the bylaws of the American Legion for proper flag burial.
- A Memorial Day Mass to honor the memory of veterans will be celebrated at three Roman Catholic cemeteries in Orange, Huntington Beach and El Toro. The masses will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, 7845 Santiago Canyon Road, Orange; Good Shepherd Cemetery, 8301 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach; and Ascension Cemetery, 24754 Trabuco Road, El Toro.
- A one-hour ceremony sponsored by service groups throughout the community will begin at 10 a.m. Monday at Bellis Park, 7171 8th St., in Buena Park. The ceremony will include the laying of wreaths and a performance by the Buena Park chorus and a color guard.
- All local military personnel and the public are invited to a ceremony on the grounds of the San Clemente Community Center, off Avenida del Mar, at 10:30 a.m. Monday. The service will feature speeches by Mayor Candace Haggard and Col. Randy A. Gangle, commanding officer of the 5th Marine Regiment at Camp Pendleton.
- Wreaths will be placed at a symbolic grave and a rifle salute will highlight the 26th consecutive Memorial Day ceremony at 11 a.m. Monday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Cypress.
State Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk) will be the featured speaker. Cypress Mayor Cecilia L. Age will read President Bush’s Memorial Day proclamation, and the Cypress High School Band, under the direction of Darlene Hale, will perform.
- Orange County veterans will honor those killed in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and in Vietnam in a ceremony at 7 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial, 10 Civic Center Plaza in Santa Ana. Included in the ceremony will be the laying of a wreath to honor U.S. Army Pfc. Roy Dennis Brown Jr., of Buena Park, who was killed during the U.S. invasion of Panama.
- Women whose husbands were killed during military service will be honored Monday at 3:30 p.m. at Pearson Park Theater, 400 N. Harbor Blvd., Anaheim.
