A Boeing F/A -18 Superhornet flew over hundreds of people wearing red, white and blue.
The roaring sound from the engine of the aircraft as it passed over the American flag brought out loud cheers and claps from the patriotic audience.
The annual tradition honored the fallen American soldiers at the 36th annual Memorial Day Ceremony hosted by Santa Clarita Valley Veterans Memorial Inc. in partnership with Eternal Valley Memorial Park and Mortuary on Monday morning.
This year’s theme was “Women in the Military,” and dignitaries including Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, Councilwoman Laurene Weste, Councilwoman Marsha McLean, and Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, were in attendance among the many people paying their respects and honoring those who lost their lives serving in the United States military.
The event began with a bagpipe-led color guard provided by the Ronald Reagan Marine Corps League, Vietnam Veterans of America No. 355. who also conducted the retiring of the colors.
An invocation was conducted by Pastor Jerry Cook from the Freedom Way Church.
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Sgt. Bob Good, a Vietnam veteran, and the national anthem performed by the Saugus High School choir.
The ceremony honored 10,000 women who served in Vietnam and many of them were nurses. Eight of those women died because of their service and were honored on the front-page cover of the event’s program.
Keynote speaker Maj. Heidi Heinrich, a local resident and U.S Army veteran with a 13-year-long career, paid homage to the “brothers and sisters” who are no longer here and cast a light on the women and the sacrifices they made when they served in the military.
“Throughout our nation’s short history in our nation’s infancy and the days of our founding fathers, women were a lesser known but integral fight for independence … Revolutionary War, our battle for independence, women often followed their husbands in the Continental Army and they traveled throughout the colonies fighting for freedom against the British, serving in critical roles both in garrison and on the battlefield. Though there were no formal ready for command structure, women voluntarily took on many duties, including cooking meals and laundry as they would have at home,” she said.
“In World War II, the number of women in military service grew to 350,000 at home and abroad. In May of 1942, Congress created the women’s auxiliary Army Corps, giving women full military status and noncombatant enlisted and officer positions.”
During her speech she honored Bobby Stone, a local woman who served during World War II and was present during the ceremony.
“Lastly, it is everyone’s duty to remember and promise to never forget those who gave all for everything we have,” said Heinrich.
Garcia took the podium to thank everyone in attendance and pay his respects to the military women who came before him.
“If it were not for them, we would not be here right now,” he said.
He also offered his condolences to the organization for losing two members, Bob Slocum and Jim Hogan, who recently died within a few weeks of each other. Their names were also put on the memorial wall to be read by Saugus High School students along with the hundreds of names of fallen soldiers.
“Let’s remind ourselves that as the painful losses of our friends and family members are real, they are in fact in defense of this great, great nation and only those troops had the strength and honor to do what they did, and only this country has the good fortune to prevail and to prosper as a result of their sacrifices,” said Garcia. “Hundreds of [veterans] have been buried in this Eternal Valley Cemetery … May God bless our fallen heroes, our active duty, our veterans in this beautiful country called the United States.”
For the first time, Terrell Edwards performed “God Bless America” at the close of the program with the Santa Clarita Valley Concert Band, and a reading of over 900 names at the memorial wall followed.