Gray skies provided a fitting accompaniment to the 50th annual Memorial Day Ceremony at the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Park. Ryan Lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
Rifle salutes, a riderless horse, and faces taut with grief and remembrance – all of these traditions and more were observed Monday at Sonoma’s 50th annual Memorial Day ceremony.
And although the country is divided over the current war in Iraq, keynote speaker Marine Col. Brendan P. Kearney (ret.)said the day’s theme should be one of unity.
“We have an obligation to hold our leaders accountable, but we must support our military personnel … who go willingly in harm’s way,” Kearney said, asking the crowd to reflect on the accomplishments of the fallen. “Hold close in your minds and in your hearts their families.”
Spectators had filled to overflowing the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Park on First Street West before the ceremony’s 11 a.m. commencement, huddling under cool gray skies and wind-rustled flags. Following a Marine Corps color guard, a grand march of veterans from each branch of the U.S. military service, including the Coast Guard, approached the star-shaped fountain at the park’s center, accompanied by the strains of each branch’s theme as rendered by the Sonoma Hometown Band.
Gary Magnani of the American Legion and Ed Kenny of the Veterans of Foreign Wars took turns reading an “honor scroll” of 81 local war dead – mostly from World War Two, but including a handful from the Vietnam and Korea conflicts and fourteen (plus two civilians) who died in Iraq. Of the latter, eight were from Sonoma County.
Nine wreaths were placed at the base of the fountain with salutes, hand-covered hearts and silence. Mayor Joanne Sanders read a proclamation remembering the million Americans who had given their lives in the country’s defense, and hoping for a “just and lasting peace among all nations” that would render Memorial Day itself a memory.
