Hurt, Hopes on the Home Front : Vietnam War: A traveling replica of a veterans memorial resurrects strong emotions and a resolve to rescue any captive military personnel who might still survive.

David Balades Jr. mourns for the father he never knew.

Twenty-three years ago, Balades’ father was killed while on a mission near Khe Sanh during the Vietnam War, leaving behind a wife and two toddlers.

On Sunday, young Balades, 26, his mother and several family friends quietly gathered at a special midday ceremony at a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at the Ventura County Government Center in Ventura.

“This is bittersweet for me,” said Balades, tracing his father’s name on a small section of the black wall. “It hurts because I didn’t really know him. Yet being here makes me feel closer to him. I want him to know he is not forgotten.”

His mother, Carol Valles, fighting back tears, consoled her son. “You try to go on with life,” she said. “But it is always there. It helps to remember.”

Today--Veterans Day--several ceremonies honoring Americans killed at war will be held throughout Ventura County. Residents also will have the opportunity to visit the miniature version of “The Wall”--one of three in the country--through the end of the week at Victoria Avenue and Telephone Road.

On Sunday, about 300 people gathered at the memorial to pay their respects to those killed or missing in action in the Vietnam War. The throng included relatives and friends of two MIAs who were believed to be pictured in a recent photograph from Vietnam.

Mayors from several Ventura County cities honored the fallen soldiers with wreaths of flowers in an official presentation.

“It’s hard to think it has been more than 20 years when it seems like just yesterday,” said Camarillo Mayor David Smith, a Vietnam veteran. He paused for a moment, choking back tears. “The memories come back so fully, don’t they?”

Said Ventura Mayor Richard Francis: “The healing time is too long in coming. I’m glad it’s here.”

Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) tried to assure the audience that the government was doing everything possible to confirm the existence of prisoners of war and secure their release.

“The war in Southeast Asia is not over for everyone,” he said. “I want to stress the primary focus is to find live prisoners.”

He said the government is checking up on every possible lead and “will continue to do so.”

But after the ceremony, Vietnam veteran Benito Centero of Oxnard said the government needs to redouble its efforts to gain the release of what he suspects are Americans being held against their will.

“How many more years is it going to take?” Centero said. “The government has done nothing. They’ve sold our boys and they’re trying to cover it up.”

Garry Stevens--brother of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Larry Stevens, who was believed to be photographed recently at a Vietnamese prison camp--said he will not rest until his brother is found.

“I know my brother is alive out there,” Garry Stevens said. “When he was shot down in 1969, they heard three to five seconds of (emergency) transmitting signals from his plane. We’ve clung to that for 20 years. We’ve never given up hope.”

Also attending the ceremony were two of Larry Stevens’ classmates from Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda.

Lynn Harper of Thousand Oaks and Linda Tepstein of Agoura said they had attended their class reunion on Saturday night. Stevens was the topic of conversation for much of the evening.

On Sunday, they placed a centerpiece from the high school reunion at the wall, along with an envelope containing a written tribute to their lost friend.

“He was dearly loved,” said Harper. “He was a wonderful, sweet young man . . . we want him home.”

In July, a grainy photograph of three men, apparently being held prisoner in Vietnam, was made public, renewing attention to the long-simmering issue of U.S. servicemen unaccounted for at the end of the war.

Stevens, as well as the families of Air Force Maj. Albro Lundy Jr. and Air Force Col. John Robertson, maintained that the three men were in the picture.

Lundy’s son, William, also attended the Ventura ceremony Sunday, saying he also would not give up the search for his father.

“That’s a picture of my father, and we would like him back,” he said.

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