Wreaths Across America brightens AV cemetery
More than 1,100 veterans of the nation’s armed services are in final rest at Lancaster Cemetery, and this past weekend, all of them were adorned with fresh, bright Christmas decoration as part of the Wreaths Across America memorial tribute.
At this holiday season more than 500 veterans and supporters of America’s military turned out at Lancaster’s oldest and unique city cemetery, loading up with armloads of wreaths shipped in from the Wreaths Across America organization.
“It is important we understand that the reason we are here today, the reason that we are able to be here today is only because of what the people did who lie at rest here,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said.
Most of the Lancaster City Council turned up this year, including the newest member, recent Army Captain Lauren Hughes-Leslie, a West Point graduate who served with the 4th Infantry Division, and Councilman Ken Mann, whose father served in World War II.
“When I think about it, I am lucky to be here today,” said Mann, a perennial presence at the Wreaths Across America annual ceremonies.
Mann’s father flew in a B-17 Flying Fortress in missions to bomb Nazi Germany, and his crew position, ball turret gunner, was just about the most dangerous. The turret was in a rotating glassed-in steel cage with two .50 caliber machine guns, suspended to the belly of the aircraft.
It was the only position inside the heavily armed bomber that did not have a parachute because the turret compartment was so small. If the aircraft were stricken by anti-aircraft fire, the gunner would have to climb out of the ball turret, having about 30 seconds to don a parachute. If the bomber crash-landed and the gunner couldn’t exit the turret, he was certain to be killed.
Wreaths Across America, however, is when the living pay tribute to the honored dead, with troops at rest in Lancaster
Cemetery with service all the way back to the Civil War, and burials of veterans continuing through two world wars, Korea, through to Vietnam.
Beginning early on a cold, but crisp and clear Saturday, scores of volunteers turned out to affix ties to the wreaths that would be propped on stakes at veterans marker stones. Volunteers included Scouts and Junior ROTC cadets, veterans service organizations, and the Blue Star Mothers of the Antelope Valley, mothers of adult children in service.
“It is so good to be out here,” said Ida Ketchum, an eightysomething who has been elder statesperson of the Blue Star Mothers for many years.
“We are also raising funds to pay for headstones for veterans without a stone,” said Kathleen Crowley-Staats, one of the longtime leaders of the group.
Dave Owens of the Lancaster Cemetery District board greeted several members of the Royal Air Force, United Kingdom allies who came from their duty station at Edwards Air Force Base in dress uniform. Owens told them, “We have two members of the RAF here. May I escort you?”
RAF Sgt. Jamie Douglas, with his comrades, brought wreaths that honored the RAF. Allied pilots fighting for Britain during WWII trained in the Antelope Valley, and some died in training.
With everyone gathered, and the American Legion Riders helping to officiate, the wreaths were passed out quickly and everyone headed out to the stakes. Within the hour, Lancaster Cemetery had a display for its memorialized veterans that emulated scenes across the nation, including Arlington National Cemetery.
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.