Memorial at Station Honors All Who Served
* In the Sept. 17 edition of the Los Angeles Times, appeared a letter from a David Holland regarding our memorial to the American Veteran at the Chatsworth Metrolink station.
I recently returned from Washington, D.C., where my group of veterans held a reunion and visited the Holocaust Museum. A member of ours had been one of the first American GIs to enter the Dachau concentration camp in 1945 and had befriended an inmate who now served as our tour guide. The GI, Frank Reynolds, is just one of the American veterans this memorial is intended to remember.
An unfortunate choice of words described the project as a “War Memorial.” A thorough reading of the article makes it clear that the purpose of the memorial is to allow the passerby an opportunity to recognize and remember the sacrifices of members of the armed forces, to provide a focus for understanding some of the most tumultuous years in our country’s history, and to help in planning local commemorative events.
An American remarked a long time ago, “War is hell.” Our group of veterans echoes that sentiment and intends to present the community with a gift of the flagpole flying our country’s flag, not to glorify war but to remember those who served.
GEORGE PAKKALA
Northridge
Pakkala is quartermaster of Post 9266 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
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