The Valley Remembers its Veterans

As drivers speed past on their way to distant business, a small flame flickers high atop a stone tower in a quiet section of Burbank. Day and night it burns, an eternal symbol of the sacrifice made by the men and women of the armed forces who gave their lives fighting for the United States in far-off lands.

Located in McCambridge Park, the monument is one of several sites honoring San Fernando Valley residents who perished in the conflicts of the 20th century. Large and small, carved in stone and forged in metal, each pays solemn tribute to the Valley’s veterans.

They include:

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* Pierce Brothers Valhalla Memorial Park, 10621 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood

A short distance inside the cemetery gates rests a large granite slab topped by a replica of a World War II-era M-1 rifle and helmet, a traditional symbol of a fallen soldier.

Surrounded by veterans’ graves and three bronze plaques commemorating Pearl Harbor, Vietnam and the 241 Marines killed in a 1983 Beirut bombing, the memorial offers these poignant verses written by Sir Walter Scott:

Soldier rest! Thy warfare o’er;

Dream of fighting fields no more;

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,

Morn of toil, nor night of waking.

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* Johnny Carson Park, Bob Hope Drive and Riverside Drive, Burbank

In the shadow of the Walt Disney Co.’s sprawling headquarters and Forest Lawn’s Hollywood Hills cemetery sits this 12-foot sculpture, titled “Requiem.” Dedicated May 27, 1988, the bronze piece by the late Erwin Binder symbolizes an eternal flame. A plaque at the site reads:

Burbank’s Tribute to Great Americans

“The Defenders of the Constitution”

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* “U.S. Veterans Remembrance Memorial,” 13645 Osborne St., Arleta

It began as a simple salute to the Marines killed in a terrorist attack in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983. Since then, veterans Joe Crowley and William Knuth have turned their Arleta home--inside and out--into a permanent monument to America’s soldiers.

In 1984, then-Mayor Tom Bradley declared it an official city war memorial.

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* Veterans of Foreign Wars, District 7, Post 3834, 111 Hagar St., San Fernando

Resting side by side in a small patch of grass sit two simple monuments to the Valley’s soldiers. One, a rare World War I memorial, offers tribute to those who served in that long-ago conflict.

The other offers this verse to those who fought and died in Vietnam:

Sleep the fitful sleep of a painless grave, where time stands still.

We remember you as you were then--young, brave, the best this nation could muster.

We remember you as you were then--alive, and we shall never forget.

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* George Izay Park, Olive Avenue at Griffith Park Drive, Burbank

Dedicated in 1947 to the city’s World War II veterans, Olive Memorial Stadium once occupied the corner of this park where several softball fields are now under construction. It was demolished in 1995 due to long-standing concerns about earthquake safety.

Unwilling to let a piece of Burbank’s history disappear amid the rubble, however, city officials rescued several plaques from the stadium and rededicated them at the site several weeks later. One reads:

The city of Burbank pays homage to the memory of those who gave the last full measure of devotion to their country.

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* McCambridge Park, 1515 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank

At the corner of Amherst Drive and San Fernando Boulevard sits Burbank’s largest veterans memorial, an eternal flame burning high above a peaceful rose garden. Nearby, bronze tablets commemorate the dozens of men and women from Burbank who were killed in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. A plaque dedicated Nov. 11, 1988, offers these words:

To those who died honor and eternal rest;

To those still in bondage remembrance and hope;

To those who returned gratitude and peace.

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* Veterans Memorial Park, 13000 Sayre St., Sylmar

Overlooked by most visitors, a small plaque rests near a flagpole at the entrance to this park perched high atop the Valley in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Unlike other memorials that pay tribute to those killed in combat, this 1979 memorial instead honors the men and women who died in the collapse of a hospital at the site during the Sylmar-San Fernando earthquake. It reads:

Lest We Forget

To the Veterans Memorial Park in loving memory of the many veterans, nurses and aides of the San Fernando Valley Veterans Hospital whose lives were lost during the earthquake of Feb. 9, 1971.

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The Birth of Memorial Day

Although its exact origins remain cloudy, the U.S. government in the 1960s officially declared Waterloo, N.Y., the birthplace of Memorial Day (also known as Decoration Day). It was in Waterloo on May 5, 1866, that people closed businesses and lowered flags to observe a special day of remembrance for soldiers killed in the Civil War.

Two years later, Union Gen. John A. Logan declared a national day to honor America’s war dead via a proclamation delivered to all posts of the Grand Army of the Republic:

The thirtieth of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

As support grew, New York made May 30 a legal holiday in 1873, followed by Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Massachusetts and Ohio.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed legislation that made Memorial Day a federal holiday falling on the last Monday in May. The law took effect in 1971.

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Sources: The American Book of Days, World Book Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Americana; Researched and written by DAVID E. BRADY / Los Angeles Times