County Salutes Its Veterans and Their Fallen Comrades

Scores of flags lined the driveways of Ivy Lawn Cemetery this weekend in a salute to surviving war veterans and in remembrance of those who died in conflicts around the world.

During a memorial service at the cemetery Sunday afternoon, many in the crowd clutched small flags in each hand--a small Old Glory, and the black and white POW-MIA flag that came into use during the Vietnam War era.

“Many people think that Veterans Day is a day when stores have major sales and kids have the day off from school,” said Skip Thomas, a representative of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County. “But we know differently, don’t we?”

The small crowd of about 100 people of all ages sang “Happy Birthday” for Jimmy Ray, a Ventura County resident who was reported missing in action in Vietnam. Some believe Ray is still a prisoner of war in Southeast Asia.

Sunday would have been his 47th birthday.

Audience members and speakers alike then turned their attention to the 58,204 American men and women who lost their lives in Vietnam, and the others who are still missing and unaccounted for.

“The [POW-MIA] flag has become a fighting symbol of what should not be done to American men and women. . . . It must never happen again,” said Gary Parker of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County.

“It also demands that we as a nation have a certain obligation to our troops--it must be honored,” he said.

War-related stress and the abuse of drugs and alcohol continue to beset many Vietnam War veterans. Some survivors of the conflict, now in middle age, have more recently become casualties in the downsizing and restructuring efforts of various corporations and face an uphill battle in today’s leaner and meaner job market.

“As you can see, we still have a long way to go in taking care of our veterans,” Parker said.

Manuel Enerez, a survivor of the Bataan death march in World War II, slowly hoisted a POW-MIA flag brought to the ceremony by young Sea Cadets from the U.S. Naval Construction Battalion Center in Port Hueneme. When a seven-man color guard fired 21 rounds, some in the audience silently wept.

Members of the county’s Vietnam veterans group are preparing to bring a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to Ivy Lawn Cemetery for 10 days in September.

It will be the fourth time the half-size replica of the black granite wall in Washington has been brought to the county.

Veterans Day events today include a 10 a.m. ceremony at the Veterans Memorial in Conejo Creek North Park in Thousand Oaks; 10:30 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, 40 Presidential Drive, near Simi Valley; and 11 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial in Constitution Park, at Paseo Camarillo and Carmen Drive in Camarillo.