Horrors of War Recalled as Nation Salutes Veterans

In Veterans Day ceremonies Monday, the horrors of war were recalled as the subject of a famous photograph laid a wreath at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the president vowed to keep seeking the causes of illness suffered by some who served in the Persian Gulf War. In the Los Angeles area, veterans were honored with speeches, color guards and air shows.

In Washington, nearly a quarter of a century after a photo of her running naked and terrified from a napalm attack was seared into Americans’ consciousness, Phan Thi Kim Phuc placed a wreath at the Vietnam War Memorial.

“I have suffered a lot from my physical and emotional pain,” she told a hushed crowd of veterans and their families. “Sometimes I thought I could not live, but God saved my life and gave me faith and hope.”

Kim Phuc was 9 when she was photographed fleeing a napalm attack in Vietnam. Associated Press photographer Nick Ut, who took the picture, won the Pulitzer Prize. Ut now works for AP in Los Angeles.

Kim, who now lives in Toronto, told the audience that she never thought she could marry or have children because of her burns, “but now I have wonderful husband, a lovely child and a happy family, thank God.”

Across the Potomac River, at Arlington National Cemetery, President Clinton placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns and promised veterans that the government will keep searching for an explanation of Gulf War Syndrome. “There are mysteries still unanswered, and we must do more.”

Clinton noted 26,000 disability cases among Gulf War veterans and said they all deserve full explanations for their ailments.

In Los Angeles, about 800 people attended the 37th annual Veterans Day ceremony in Hollywood Hills’ Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, where the Condor Squadron, a club of World War II airplanes from Van Nuys, performed a flyover. Fred Hummer, a 97-year-old World War I army bugler, played taps at the end of the ceremony.

In Commerce, four National Guard helicopters landed in Veterans Memorial Park, where 350 people celebrated with a joint-service color guard march and concert sponsored by the city.

About 1,000 veterans feasted on chili dogs and cheeseburgers during a Veterans Day picnic held by the Veterans’ Affairs Medical Center in West Los Angeles.

At the Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood, a handful of people visiting graves dotted the wide expanse of green lawn. Veterans Lew Gallo, Steve Toppley and Louis Gaybrandt sat disconsolately on a bench facing the empty rows of white headstones.

They came to the cemetery early Monday, hoping to find a ceremony commemorating Veterans Day.

“I’m so disappointed, I don’t even know what to say,” said Toppley, 70, an underwater demolition expert who fought in World War II.

“There are no flags,” said Gallo, 68, who was an infantryman in the Korean War.

“No gratitude,” added Gaybrandt, 70, a rifleman who fought in World War II and the Korean War. “No one cares.”

So, the three men sat on the bench, sharing a “camaraderie of remembering,” Gallo said. “Everybody seems to forget. It brings tears to my eyes.”

“I read somewhere, ‘God and soldiers loved in war; God and soldiers forsaken in peace,’ ” he added. “I think that covers it here.”

But across the lawn, Marti Livingstone knelt over gravestones, brushing them clean of leaves and twigs as she placed yellow irises across the markers.

“It seems important to me to remember the people who died for me,” said Livingstone, a 30-year-old bartender who lives in West Los Angeles, “even if I’m not related to them.”

* RELATED PHOTO: B3