Area Residents Pay Tribute to Nation’s Heroes : Memorial Day: In observances countywide, deceased military personnel were honored with flags, flowers, prayers and vows not to forget their sacrifices.

When Al Giambastiani first sounded taps at Simi Cemetery, it was the height of the Vietnam War. More than 400 American troops were killed in the week preceding that Memorial Day in 1969.

Giambastiani has been the bugler at the cemetery’s Memorial Day observances ever since, and he has shed tears at them all.

“I cry every time I’m out there,” he said. “I tear while I’m doing it.”

When he raised his trumpet and sounded the mournful notes again Monday, he brought tears to the eyes of many of the 150 people attending the ceremony.

From Simi Valley to Ventura, Westlake Village to Piru, hundreds of Ventura County residents paid tribute to the nation’s deceased veterans with flags and flowers, prayers and promises not to forget.

“This nation’s past, with all its historic sacrifices, should never be forgotten,” said Harry Levant, an American Legion official who spoke to about 300 people at Ivy Lawn Cemetery in Ventura. “Although we do not honor war, we recall with respect the heroes that have fought.”

Claire Kundin voiced a similar theme before the observance in Simi Valley.

“It’s very important to remember the men who have fought for our country,” she said. “People forget after a while. I don’t want them to forget.”

Kundin, whose husband, Harry, heads the Disabled American Veterans post that sponsored the Simi Valley observance, did her part by inviting several dozen friends.

Sitting in white folding chairs, the visitors watched the color guard raise the American flag and then lower it to half-staff as Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) sang the national anthem. Next came brief speeches by Wright, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), County Supervisor Vicky Howard, Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton and retired Marine Col. Greg Marshall.

Noting that 290 veterans are buried at the cemetery, Marshall said, “May each future generation emulate their unselfish devotion to duty.”

The tombstones themselves spoke as eloquently as anyone about what Marshall called “the frailty of human life.”

There was the marker for Charles R. Druckemiller, a World War I Army veteran who died in 1978 at age 84, and that of Karl Dennis Porter, an Army enlisted man who died in Vietnam a few weeks before his 21st birthday. Russell A. Passmore did Navy duty in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War and came home from all three, according to his gravestone, before dying in 1981.

Starting two hours before the ceremony, Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts from four Simi Valley troops fanned out among the markers, looking for veterans’ graves to decorate with American flags and white crosses.

Chris Haseley, 11, said the purpose was to “remember what all the soldiers did for us.”

“It sure was a lot,” his friend Lenny Elwell, 8, said.

But Kevin Kerney, 7, called warfare a “crazy idea.”

“You can get killed doing that,” he said.

Peter Bauman, 8, vowed to fight for his country, but his friend Anthony Moresi, also 8, wasn’t so sure. “I don’t want to get killed,” Anthony said.

The boys agreed that people who join the military are heroes.

“There’s a guy down my street who was in Vietnam and was paralyzed,” Anthony said. “He’s a hero.”

Peter’s mother, Kathy Bauman, said the event will teach the boys about patriotism. “This will set a memory for them,” she said.

Glenn Rankin said he brings his three children--Nehemiah, 9, William, 8, and Nicole, 6--to Simi Cemetery several times a month to maintain the graves of Rankin’s father, uncle and friend, all veterans.

“I think they were very nice to serve our country,” Nehemiah said.

Eddie Leighton Jr., a Vietnam veteran, brought his 12-year-old son Joseph to the Ivy Lawn observance.

“Some people take the weekend to barbecue,” Leighton said. “We wanted to recognize the people who gave us the freedom to do that.”

Times staff writer Tina Daunt contributed to this story.