At Lancaster Cemetery, Wreaths Across America looms Easy Company
On a Saturday in mid-December, hopes are always for holiday weather that may be cold, but is crisp and clear, and that is Wreaths Across America weather.
This Saturday, at Lancaster Cemetery, Cemetery Manager Dayle DeBry and her team will be ready for the 9 a.m. laying of the wreaths at the marker stones of veterans whose deaths date back to the Civil War.
From World War I onto World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the Antelope Valley has veterans at final rest in a municipal memorial park that serves as our local equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery.
Because of DeBry’s history curation, and at the time, a substantial contribution from the Antelope Valley Press retired publisher William C. Markham, there is a handsome spire that recreated Lancaster’s homage to the “Boulevard Boys,” the dozens of young local men who served in World War II.
The tribute park also has plaques and memorials dedicated to the AV’s Womens Air Service Pilots, the WASPS who lived and loved here. Also there are tributes to USS Arizona Navy sailor Ivan Westerfield, killed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Also, 2nd Lt. Russell Godde, who fell, flying into Nazi flak at Ploesti, Romania, on Aug. 1, 1943.
They were young men among 400,000 Americans who would never live to see the victory of the United States and its allies over the tyranny of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. They provided us the liberties we share today.
The Blue Star Mothers of the Antelope Valley for years have been sending “care packages” to the troops, some their grown children serving overseas and at bases in the US, where, yes, the holidays can also be lonely. In recent times, they have been raising funds to purchase marker stones for veterans at Lancaster Cemetery who would otherwise be unmarked. They will be out there Saturday.
On Saturday, there will be an enormous pyramid of wreaths that have shipped from the Worcester Wreath Co. The tradition began more than 30 years ago when the company’s founder donated several hundred extra wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery. An Internet photo in the early 2000s exploded the custom to memorial parks and military tribute sites across the nation.
Hundreds of folks typically turn out at the cemetery, 111 East Lancaster Boulevard. They will come from military non-profits like Coffee4Vets and AV Vets4Veterans, and from the posts, American Legion and VFW, and the Legion Riders and Patriot Guards. There will be Scouts, and citizens, elected officials and dignitaries. Recently, Lynn DuPratt, a retired Valley Press editor, gave keynote remarks.
Everyone gathers on a likely cold, but hopefully crisp, clear Saturday to remember those that went before. And before they went, they served, and some sacrificed everything. The ritual has also been performed in the rain. Snow is rare here.
So many people turn out that the work of laying the wreaths is usually done in an hour. Most attending have plucked down $20, $40 or more to donate wreaths to decorate the graves of soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen … of people they never knew. It is simple. You see a date, and read a name, and someone is remembered.
It does not solve the problems of a world of wars, and rumors of wars. It does signify that service through the generations is worthy of memory, recognition, and honor.
Likely, there will also be hot cocoa, and that is also in the spirit of the season.
Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army paratrooper veteran who covered the Iraq War for the Antelope Valley Press, he serves as Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s appointee on the Los Angeles County Veterans Advisory Commission.