By Mary O’KEEFE

On Saturday, the community will have the chance to thank veterans for their military service at Two Strike Park as part of an annual recognition ceremony. The celebration – one of several planned for the Southland – will begin at 3 p.m. and last about an hour. It will open with Crescenta Valley High School’s JROTC presenting colors, and will include patriotic music and poetry, a few guest speakers and a flag retirement ceremony conducted Boy Scout Troop 288. For the flag retirement ceremony, Boy Scouts will take flags that are worn and tattered, cut them into pieces and offer them to audience members who, at an appointed time, will place those pieces into a controlled fire.

The ceremony will end with JROTC presenting an Armed Forces medley.

“The ceremony is designed to be upbeat,” said Lynn McGinnis of American Legion Post 288.

This year, American Legion Post 288 and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 1614 will dedicate a specific part of the program to honor those who served during the Korean War.

“It is [often called] the forgotten war,” McGinnis said.

He is asking veterans who served in any branch of the military between the years 1950 and 1953 to come to the Two Strike Park ceremony and introduce themselves to him prior to the ceremony. There are seats reserved for those who served during that time.

In 1918, on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Armistice was declared between Allied nations and Germany in World War I. Often called the “war to end all wars,” WWI mobilized all branches of the U.S. military. The war claimed more than 16 million people – soldiers and civilians.

In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as Armistice Day, which was to recognize all veterans and, according to the 1926 U.S. Congress, should be recognized with thanksgiving, prayer and with exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understand between nations. In 1954 Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day.

There is a camaraderie felt between those who have served, regardless of rank, military branch or amount of time served.

“I think there is a bond of patriotism,” McGinnis said.

McGinnis grew up as an “Air Force brat” and shared that camaraderie not only with those with whom he served in the Air Force in 1967 but also with other “military brats” he went to school with. McGinnis’ father served in the Air Force most of Lynn’s childhood, retiring just before he graduated from high school. There was a camaraderie with other children who moved from base-to-base like McGinnis.

“It is patriotism that goes beyond politics,” McGinnis said of the foundation of the brother-/sisterhood shared among veterans.

For veteran Steve Pierce, that camaraderie is still felt today.

“I still have connections with the ones I served with,” he said. Pierce was a Naval officer who served in Vietnam.

“During my tour in Vietnam, [he and his crew] took troops seven miles up the Cua Viet River to [below] Dong Ha,” he said.

Pierce said that he was the one in charge of the boat, but it was really the boatswain’s mates, the men who had been on the ship much longer, who were in charge.

“I was 22 at the time,” he said. “You don’t know how much danger you are in.”

He recalled when he arrived to his first command of a boat he was decked out in his uniform, including his cap with a gold emblem. He was given some good advice from a man who had been serving longer than he.

“He said, ‘With all due respect you better sit down,’” Pierce said. He sat down and 30 seconds later the ship “took a rocket.”

It is living through those types of experiences that create a lifelong bond, he said.

And it is those types of shared experiences that Veterans Day celebrates.

Two Strike Park is located at 5107 Rosemont Ave. in La Crescenta.

  Mary Okeefe