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Weekend honors veterans’ sacrifices

By Dave Bemis/Managing Editor/dbemis@syvnews.com

With tears and laughter, gravity and levity, the Santa Ynez Valley honored its veterans throughout Memorial Day weekend.

Young and old volunteered to decorate veterans’ graves at Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard on a sunny but chilly Saturday morning, hundreds filled the Solvang Veterans Memorial Building later that day for “A Tribute to Our Troops,” and multiple ceremonies filled up Monday morning with solemn salutes to the fallen, as well as light-hearted encouragement to celebrate those lives rather than mourning their deaths.

In an annual effort organized by the American Legion, dozens of local residents — from senior citizens to children — come out Saturday morning to place flags, crosses or Stars of David, and commemorative medallions on the graves of veterans in Ballard.

At Monday morning’s ceremonies at Solvang Park, the featured speaker was Col. David Buck, commander of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg Air Force Base.

While everyone should respect and honor the sacrifice of those who have died protecting America, he said, “the Irish have it right” in their tradition of celebrating at funerals and wakes.

“Change your focus from the loss of your loved one to the celebration of their memory,” he advised the crowd of about 200 people.

Military members are often seen as straight-laced and rigid, he said, but every service member he’s ever known had a sense of humor and a light-hearted side.

Retired Lt. Col. Chris Nielson, the senior vice commander of the Valley’s VFW Post 7139, also advised his listeners to lift their spirits.

After emotionally describing a soldier’s possible last thoughts and emotions at the moment of death, he asked the crowd, “Have you earned their sacrifice?”

“That’s a good question to ask yourself,” he added. “It’s a hard question.”

Every survivor of a fallen combatant — veterans, family members and friends — has at least some small sense of guilt about someone else making the ultimate sacrifice, he said, but there should be no question about whether survivors deserve that devotion.

“Yes. Absolutely,” he said, “if for no other reason than that you are here right now at this place, at this moment, showing your appreciation for that sacrifice.”

But to fully honor the fallen, he said, people should think of them not only at solemn ceremonies, but in moments of joy, satisfaction and tenderness.

“At those moments, think of them. Think of those that sacrificed ... and you will realize, you’ve earned it,” Nielson concluded.

Other participants at the park ceremony included master of ceremonies Rudolph Henderson, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7139; Ed Jorgenson, the post quartermaster; World War II Merchant Marine member Howard Mossberg; and Boy Scouts from Troop 41.

Speakers at Monday’s ceremony and at Saturday’s Tribute to our Troops asked listeners to think specifically of the Valley’s own — a Marine and a Special Forces soldier who died in the past year.

Marine Cpl. Aaron Allen of Buellton was killed Nov. 14 by a roadside explosive near Fallujah, Iraq, and Airborne Staff Sgt. Joshua Townsend of Solvang was found dead Jan. 16 at a U.S. military camp in Afghanistan, where he was serving with the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group based in Fort Bragg, N.C.

The Tribute to Our Troops raised money for the Special Operations Warrior Fund as well as the Cpl. Aaron Allen Fund.

Deb Argel Bastian of Lompoc, chairwoman of the event, also lost her son, Air Force Capt. Derek Argel, on Memorial Day 2005 when he was killed in action.

In addition to Bastian, speakers included retired Navy officer Edie Rosenthal, now with the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in Tampa, Fla.; Merrilee Carlson, president of Families United for our Troops in Washington, D.C.; and actress Bo Derek, a Valley resident who was honor- ary chairwoman of the event.

Another famous Valley resident, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., read the poignant letter written by Maj. Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah during the Civil War, a week before he was killed at the first Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861. His dramatic reading was accompanied by the plaintive strains of a violin, played by Diane Siminski of Lompoc.

Other brief ceremonies Monday were conducted at each of the Valley’s cemeteries, including a short talk from a member of the clergy, a color guard, a bugler, and an honor guard firing a rifle salute.