San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
WREATH CEREMONY HONORS VETERANS
Covid-restricted event at Bonita cemetery part of nationwide tribute to those who’ve passed
Although the COVID-19 pandemic made for a far smaller gathering than usual, Julia Robles was thankful she was able to honor her late nephew, Army Staff Sgt. Alfredo B. Silva, with a fresh balsam wreath on his grave and a solemn ceremony to honor other fallen veterans Saturday morning.
“Alfredo died in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2005. He was killed by an IED,” Robles said on the lawn of Glen Abbey Memorial Park and Mortuary in Bonita. “He was from Chula Vista and went to Hilltop High, and he is buried here. He was my sister’s son. He was going to be 35 and was married with a daughter. He had a very big family who loved him so much.”
This was the second year that Glen Abbey participated in Wreaths Across America Day, joining cemeteries across the nation and overseas in paying tribute to fallen United States veterans.
Wreaths Across America Day began in 1992 and is typically held on the second or third Saturday of December. This year, 1.7 million wreaths were placed at more than 2,500 participating locations.
Because of concerns about the spread of COVID-19, this year’s wreath laying on 1,800 grave sites at Glen Abbey was done by 200 volunteers on Wednesday. That’s four times more wreaths laid than last year, although still not enough to cover the burial sites of all 8,000plus veterans at Glen Abbey, according to Pamela Gilley, location manager for the cemetery and an Army veteran. The wreaths were purchased through donations — including a $10,000 gift given by a single donor.
Wreaths were also placed at
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery, Miramar National Cemetery and Greenwood Memorial Park & Mortuary in San Diego.
Robles and her 13-year-old daughter, Alexandra, were among the fewer than two dozen people who were allowed to attend Saturday’s ceremony in person. The ceremony, timed in coordination with the one at Arlington National
Cemetery in Virginia, was also livestreamed on Facebook.
In Bonita, a Cub Scout presented six wreaths to current and retired military members. The wreaths represented each branch of the military — Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Merchant Marines.
Retired Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Bob Chicca also laid a remembrance wreath in honor of the more than 93,000 U.S. service members from all branches whose last known status was either prisoner of war or missing in action.
Chicca, who served from 1961 to 1969, was a POW for nearly a year, captured along with fellow service members aboard the Navy intelligence collection ship Pueblo by North Korean soldiers in 1968.
Freed on Christmas Eve in 1968, Chicca said that being held prisoner “is one of those experiences I’m happy to have gone through and survived, but I sure as hell don’t want to do it again. It’s one of those forming events in your life that set things up for your future.”
Bonita Kiwanis Club member Mike Kilman, a veteran of both the Army and the Navy, delivered the keynote speech. David Powell, a volunteer with Bugles Across America, closed out the ceremony with a solemn taps solo.
It was Alexandra Robles’ Girl Scouts Troop 6034 that brought Wreaths Across America to Glen Abbey two years ago. The troop earned its bronze award for the effort.
Before that, Julia Robles said every year her family would go to Greenwood and bring a wreath back to place on her nephew’s grave in the Bonita cemetery.
“The Girl Scouts troop said they wanted to be able to bring this to Glen Abbey (knowing) it was so important to our family,” Robles said. “Last year our whole family was there for the ceremony and got to lay the wreath at his gravesite.”