Photos: Honoring Veterans Day 2022 in the Southland
Linda Logan, who started Field of Valor to help veterans 11 years ago, stands among fluttering flags installation on the grounds of Sierra Vista Middle School on Saturday in Covina, Calif.
Veterans Day honors U.S. veterans, including those killed in war. The observance originated in 1919 on the first anniversary of the 1918 armistice that ended World War I and was known as Armistice Day. In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
Navy veteran Barry Witherby reads about Donald Ward Evans Jr., a Medal of Honor recipient killed while serving in the Vietnam War, at the Field of Valor display.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Kadence Belle, 10, visits Field of Valor, to honor troops and veterans on the grounds of Sierra Vista Middle School on Saturday.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Ashley Maldonado, coach of the San Fernando High School cheerleading squad, walks alongside her group at the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade in San Fernando. Her father, Miguel Maldonado, served 20 years in the Marine Corps.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Asa Cox, 7, marches with a toy rifle in front of his great-grandfather Cruz Trevino, 77, while attending the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade in San Fernando. Cruz Trevino served in Vietnam in 1965-66.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Sister Beatrice, 87, cheers on members of the Kennedy High School Junior ROTC as they participate in the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Joe Vidal, 96, who served in the U.S. Cavalry during World War II, is cheered on by his daughter Annette Vidal, in the driver’s seat, as they participate in the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Jenny Mendoza, left, and her sister Carole Juarez cheer at the parade in San Fernando. Their late father, Mike O. Juarez, was a World War II veteran.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Sgt. Major Mya Medina, 18, marches alongside other members of the Army Junior ROTC program at James Monroe High School in the parade in San Fernando.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
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Coast Guardsman Rojas, 20, left, and Marine Lance Cpl. Allen, 21, cheer at the parade in San Fernando.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Vietnam veteran Danny Inez, 74, waves while participating in the parade.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti greets the crowd at the San Fernando parade.
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Irfan Khan was a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times from 1996 to 2024. He previously served as a freelance photographer for the publication beginning in 1989. Khan started his career as a commercial photographer in 1973 in Pakistan and moved to Dubai in 1977, where he worked for an advertising agency and at a leading English newspaper. Khan’s assignments have taken across Southern California and the U.S. Internationally, he has photographed the Hajj in Saudi Arabia and war zones of the Pakistan/Afghanistan border in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He was part of the team awarded the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news for coverage of the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to semi-classical music of the Indian subcontinent and playing cricket on Sundays.
Mel Melcon started out with the Los Angeles Times in 1984 as a summer intern, worked on a freelance basis from 1985 to 1997 and then was hired full time. Melcon likes to capture the offbeat and funny side of life in his images. He left The Times in 2024.
