Honor Guards : Veterans Patrol Cemetery to Protect Memorial Day Flag Display

Vietnam veteran Richard Camacho stood guard duty this Memorial Day weekend--at a cemetery.

Camacho, president of Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County, and about 20 other members camped out Saturday night at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura to guard 603 American flags that had been raised for Memorial Day weekend.

The flags had once been draped over the coffins of people killed in various wars, and their families had donated them for the cemetery’s Avenue of Flags observance, Camacho said.

When the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization first constructed the Avenue of Flags six years ago, about 30 flags were stolen, Camacho said. Since then, veterans and their families have been conducting unarmed patrols of the cemetery when the flags are flown on Veterans Day and Memorial Day weekend.

“Teen-agers and kids will try to steal them,” Camacho said. “Since we’ve started, we’ve only lost about three flags.”

Members of the Vietnam Veterans group patrolled Saturday night, VFW members were to keep watch Sunday night and the cemetery staff patrolled during the day. Following a ceremony at the Ventura County Government Center today, the flags will be taken down and stored at the cemetery until Veterans Day.

Using citizens band radios to keep in contact with each other, the group Saturday night set up watches in four areas of the cemetery, which covers more than 200 acres. Meanwhile, Rob Baskin and Joe DeLullo drove around the park in a pickup truck, looking for troublemakers.

By 4:40 a.m., the long night was beginning to wear on Baskin, 23, and DeLullo, 38. They had been patrolling continuously since 8 p.m. Saturday without incident.

“You’re staying out here all night, and you’re hoping someone will be an idiot. . . . It’s kind of a bummer that no one came over the wall,” said Baskin, the son of a Vietnam veteran.

DeLullo answered hopefully, “It’s not over yet.”

According to DeLullo, the cemetery offers little protection against intruders. “It ain’t nothing for someone to hop that wall,” he said, pointing to a short brick barrier surrounding most of the cemetery, which fronts on Valentine Road. At the back is a large field where intruders can easily enter. The veterans set up camp in the field.

To surprise any intruders, Baskin and DeLullo kept their truck’s headlights off as they patrolled. “You don’t want the brake lights to show, so you coast to a stop or use the emergency brake,” Baskin explained.

The biggest excitement the pair had Saturday night was spotting a fellow veteran who was playing a practical joke. “We saw him just leaning against a tree and he didn’t move when he shined the spotlight on him,” DeLullo said. “We thought he was dead or something.”

This was the first year Baskin and DeLullo patrolled at the cemetery. “It kind of makes Memorial Day special,” DeLullo said.