Rally Brims With Support for Captured GI’s Family

The mother of captive U.S. soldier Andrew Ramirez stood to thank the crowd that had turned out Saturday to honor her son and his two comrades.

“He went on a mission of peace,” said Vivian Ramirez, wearing a white T-shirt bearing a photo of her son.

“This was not supposed to happen,” she continued, her voice trembling, then stopping.

A man’s voice boomed from the crowd, breaking the hush that had greeted her words:

“You’re not alone, Vivian!”

“I know,” she replied, touching off a frenzy of cheers and flag-waving from the several hundred military veterans and others who had come to the tree-studded park in Montebello.

“We love you, Vivian! We love you!” shouted the crowd.

Coming near the end of the rally, it was the most poignant moment in an emotion-packed gathering, one of several demonstrations of support since the March 31 capture of Staff Sgt. Ramirez, 24, of East Los Angeles and two other American soldiers by Yugoslav troops. Ramirez, Spc. Steven Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas, and Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smith’s Creek, Mich., had been on peacekeeping patrol near the Yugoslav-Macedonian border.

Organizers of Saturday’s rally, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission and AltaMed Health Services Corp., urged veterans to “bring your colors.” And bring them they did.

There were the bright blue satin jackets of Amvets Post 113 and the black ones proclaiming their wearers to be Vietnam veterans. Some sported the type of camouflage fatigues the young soldiers were wearing when they were captured and their grim images were televised around the world. And there were yellow ribbons everywhere.

“I’m here because he’s over there, and I want to say, ‘Come home to us soon,’ ” said Therese Wenninger, a member of the Auxiliary of American Legion Post 411 in Pico Rivera. Pinned to her fatigues was a button with Ramirez’s photo on it.

“We wanted to pay our respects--my father was a POW during World War II,” said Linda Mollard, also of Pico Rivera.

Vietnam veteran Danny Hernandez, executive director of the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Boyle Heights, said he and his wife attended to show their solidarity with Ramirez and his family.

“When we’ve got a fellow military man in trouble, we all have to band together. . . . We can understand what he’s going through,” Hernandez said.

The one-hour ceremony featured music by the band of Schurr High School--Ramirez’s alma mater--and speeches by several elected officials, including Reps. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) and Grace F. Napolitano (D-Norwalk). The veterans also conducted a POW remembrance ceremony in honor of the captured soldiers and presented black-and-white POW flags for each of the three Montebello Unified School District campuses at which Ramirez had been a student.

The Ramirez family occupied center stage, including his sister, Nadine, who gave the invocation, and a cousin, Josh Morengo, who led the Pledge of Allegiance.

And county veterans Commissioner Bob Archuleta, who emceed the event, closed the rally by reminding Vivian Ramirez: “You’ve got friends, you’ve got family, you’ve got a nation, and you’re not alone.”

Afterward, Vivian Ramirez was surrounded by well-wishers and friends who hugged her, many in tears.

She said the last few weeks have been harrowing for her family.

“It’s like a dream,” she said in an interview. “You always hear about these kinds of things happening to other families. You never think it’s going to happen to you. When the reality hit me, it was such a shock. I just don’t know what I feel.”

Hoping that her son will be released and that they will be reunited, she said, “I just want to hold him and not let him go.”

The family spends day and night waiting by the phone and monitoring the news, each new report bringing another twist on the emotional roller coaster.

“My hopes go up high one day, then they go back down the next,” she said. “But today, seeing all the people here to support him, I feel like he will come home soon. He will come back. He will.”