Echoes of Valor

Despite the cool and cloudy weather, hundreds of veterans and their families gathered Monday at cemeteries throughout Ventura County for solemn ceremonies honoring those who died fighting for their country.

At Ventura’s Ivy Lawn Memorial Park, a keynote speech by Ventura County Supervisor Susan K. Lacey set the tone for Memorial Day.

“Time has a subtle way of reducing the impact of some words and phrases that at one time could stir the deepest emotions,” Lacey told an audience of about 300 in front of the cemetery’s mausoleum.

“Words such as Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Pearl Harbor, Bataan, Corregidor, Normandy, Pork Chop Hill and the 38th Parallel, the Tet Offensive, Saigon, Lebanon, Desert Storm--to name but a few. The debt of gratitude we owe to the brave men and women who gave their very lives for each of us and the security of our country becomes awesome and a responsibility none of us should take lightly.”

To honor that debt, about 250 people, many of them veterans in full uniform, gathered for a service at Simi Valley’s Public Cemetery, where speeches sparked tears among friends and family members. Similar ceremonies were held at Camarillo’s Conejo Mountain Memorial Park.

In Ventura, Lacey expressed gratitude to those who donated each of the 750 flags that adorned the cemetery’s Veterans Avenue of the Flags.

“Each and every one is a casket flag that has been donated by family members and loved ones of those who have gone to their rest,” Lacey said. “This is a beautiful and moving tribute which reminds us of the meaning of Memorial Day.”

For Vern Arnold, a Vietnam War veteran who has attended Memorial Day services at Ivy Lawn for the last three years, the Avenue of Flags was an eloquent tribute indeed.

“It shows we still have an esprit de corps among survivors and that their families want that memory to live on,” Arnold said.

But the holiday is also a reminder of very personal struggles, Arnold said.

“Everyone has to work through their own grieving process,” he said. “We have to face those old fears and march on. This is just a ceremonial way of putting those fears behind.”

Dressed in military fatigues, Ron Palfrey of Simi Valley fired his rifle as part of a salute to the fallen soldiers.

“Doing something on Memorial Day minimizes the sour memories of the war,” said the 46-year-old member of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County.

During the service, members of more than 40 military and civilian groups laid wreaths on a symbolic tomb. Among the youngest was 9-year-old James White of Ventura, who accompanied his grandfather, Lt. Col. Walter White.

White, 80, said he will never forget the day his plane was shot down over Germany during World War II. “You must be damn sure you got your parachute on.”

After the services, U.S. Army Maj. Joseph C. Sawyer of Ventura said he had hoped more people would recognize the patriotism of those who had fought for their country. But Sawyer, 78, who was among the first troops to land in Japan in 1945, said this year’s Ivy Lawn ceremonies were the best so far.

The ceremony ended with a tribute to peace as dozens of white doves were released into the sky.

“No one wants peace more than a military man,” Sawyer said.