In our time November 11th is referred to as Veterans Day in recognition of those who served in the armed forces during war time.
Once called Armistice Day to mark the end of World War l, the war to end all wars, which then morphed to being named Decoration Day in response to the adorning of grave sites and public places with flowers and heartfelt mementos in reverence on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
May I gently remind everyone The All Service Memorial that once stood on 3rd street was demolished to make way for the new mall and replaced with a topiary of dinosaur. Some years later Santa Monica kept its promise to replace the Memorial with the one that now stands at Palisades Park where at the exact 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the columns there cast their long shadows in a poignantly silent statement of Remembrance. A tribute that has attracted fewer and fewer attendees every passing year.
Yet the columns remain posted all the same like sentinels overlooking the vast ocean as the historic cannon are silenced for all time there. How perfect a statement I ask in content knowing my home town cares enough to provide for such a site.
And so I find myself turning my attention to two timely events occurring simultaneously by design or coincidence? One of those is the establishment of a commission in our nations Capitol to address the correlation between veterans and the statistics of their incarceration of a reported 18%. The other event is the current release of a movie called “Breaking” a story about a contemporary veteran in crisis killed by a police sharp shooter.
And so I ponder in whose name do we refer to in Santa Monica on veterans day? Is it Santa Monica’s own Medal of Honor recipient Joe Gandara a Mexican American long denied the honors? An omission amended by President Obama. Joe Gandara that rushed an enemy machine gun position during the D Day invasion that broke the deadly grip on his small band of brothers that had lasted for hours.
Do we recall Santa Monica’s own, Colonel Hackworth one of this nations most decorated soldiers who wrote the book About Face that chronicles his experiences and his change of heart after his great soul searching he must have come to terms with?
Do we recall Lieutenant McCormack whose B52 bomber exploded on take off from Guam? Or Albro Lundy senior who was listed as Missing In Action until his son trekked to Southeast Asia to successfully find the crash site and recover the remains that now lay in Arlington?
Or do we recall all the names of veterans who are MIA, “Missing in America”, that once resided in the hotel Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet in the beach parking lots as buildings at the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration were shuttered for decades?
All of them I say, none shall be denied their honors for having served because none here are not indebted to them for their efforts regardless of time served, rank or post. An obligation that we the living beneficiaries of generations past present or future are duty bound to observe on such a day of that war to end all wars that regrettably did not end all conflicts unless we recall and remember on this Veterans Day and in to the future in the continued hope for Peace among all People who recognize the differences between war and Peace and choose Peace.
Stewart Resmer, Vietnam Veteran