Honoring our vets on Memorial Day Honoring our vets on Memorial Day (May 27, 2005)

by Jeb Bing

A s dangerous assignments for Pleasanton troops continue in Iraq and Afghanistan, Memorial Day services this coming Monday take on special meaning. More than 100 from Pleasanton have served or are serving in those battle zones. As Scouts from Troops 941 and 998 place small American flags on the nearly 600 veterans' graves at St. Augustine Catholic and Pleasanton Memorial Gardens cemeteries starting tomorrow, we can be grateful that none is from these current conflicts. Even so, this year's numbers are about 50 more gravesites to decorate than last year as more and more of our city's World War II service men and women leave us on this, the 60th year since the Second World War ended.

Then, at 11 a.m. Monday, I hope you'll join me and several hundred others for a festive, patriotic tribute to our fallen vets, an annual observance sponsored by the Scouts and the local posts of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion. Opening the ceremonies will be vocalists Susannah Meyer and Jill Horn, singing the National Anthem,. They will be followed by a reading of General John A. Logan's General Order in 1868 that designated May 30 as "a memorial day" for the purpose of "decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country." Although the annual observances, also known then as Decoration Day, were major events in southern, northern and midwestern states, it's not clear when the tradition took hold in California. Historians believe the first Memorial Day services were held in Pleasanton about the time the International Order of Odd Fellows opened their Memorial Gardens cemetery in 1886, with 23 burials that year. Since the late 1800s, the community observed Memorial Day at the cemetery annually.

Most memorial services these days are celebrations as well as commemorations, and Monday's ceremony will be no exception. The ceremony will include songs, poems, and plenty of patriotism. Among the speakers will be Pleasanton's newly-elected Mayor Jennifer Hosterman, followed by Vice-Mayor Steve Brozosky with special Memorial Day remarks. Sing-alongs with Meyer and Horn will include "America the Beautiful" and "God Bless America." Annette Sthalnecker of the VFW Auxiliary will recite a special Memorial Day poem, followed by the placing of wreaths at Cemetery Circle. A rifle firing squad will follow the reading of the names of veterans buried at Memorial Gardens, with "Taps," played by Russ Kennedy of the VFW, concluding the hour-long ceremony.

As always, the American Legion and VFW will host its traditional and tasty barbecue at Veterans Memorial Hall on Main Street, where, for $7, it's all you can eat. The donation, by the way, will go to the local Veterans History Records project so we'll know who in Pleasanton served, where and when. This will also be the last luncheon for a year or so in Veterans Hall, which is to be closed at year's end for major renovation.

Those wanting to walk off the luncheon of ribs may want to walk over to Ridge View Commons on Case Avenue for another special Memorial Day observance. There at 2 p.m., Pleasanton seniors will dedicate their new flagpole, a tribute to long-time Pleasanton resident Vernon Engebretson, who died Jan. 22, 2004 at the age of 84.

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