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The Lake County Veterans Day Ceremony and Celebration was held at the Little Theater at the Lake County Fairgrounds on Martin Street.
The Sea Scouts Color Guard posted the flags and the Lake County United Veterans Council Military Funeral Honors Team was on hand to provide the rifle volley at the ceremony's end. Emily Barker, former Miss Lake County, sang the national anthem, the Clear Lake High School Band was on hand to play wartime favorites and United Veterans Council Chaplain Capt. Woody Hughes offered the opening prayer.
Bob Penny, Lake County's assistant veterans service officer, opened the event, and welcomed to the stage his boss, Jim Brown, who leads the Veterans Service Office, which works to get local veterans their benefits.
Brown thanked local veterans for their service. “We are in debt to our veterans,” Brown said. “All veterans have sacrificed part of their lives during war and peace.”
He, in turn, then welcomed Brad Onorato, district representative for Congressman Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena).
Thompson, Onorato explained, is currently in Afghanistan with the troops and so couldn't attend the Tuesday ceremony.
Onorato discussed the history of Veterans Day, beginning in World War I, and explained how that in 1958 President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation to create the holiday.
“We should never forget our veterans' sacrifices,” said Onorato, noting that there are about 8,000 veterans in Lake County alone, and nearly 24 million nationwide.
He pointed to important recent developments for service members, including a 3.9-percent pay raise for active military and a new GI Bill to increase college funding for soldiers returning from service. There also have been increases in personnel to help returning military personnel with health and injury issues.
Thompson, himself a Vietnam vet, has worked on behalf of military members and veterans to help bring about these changes, Onorato noted.
Regarding the current situation in Iraq and the effort to bring home US soldiers, Onorato noted, “We must make sure that when we do bring them home they will be treated with respect.”
As Onorato left the stage two dozen 4-H Club members distributed handmade thank you cards to all the veterans in the room.
One of the cards read: "Dear Veteran, I wake up each morning free to make choices because of the sacrifices you have made. You have our gratitude." It was written by 9-year-old Jared Smith and delivered to his grandfather, Korean War-era veteran Milton Heath.
Near the closing of the ceremony, Capt. Hughes surprised Lucerne resident and United Veterans Council member Frank Parker with the Veteran of the Year Award. Parker received a standing ovation along with the award, which is topped by a golden eagle.
At the closing, the Military Funeral Honors Team fired a rifle volley, which was accompanied by the playing of “Taps.”
Following the solemn event the community and its veterans sat down together to enjoy the annual barbecue that rounds out the morning ceremony.
E-mail Harold LaBonte at
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NICE – Thanks to the efforts of the North Lake Garden Club, Lake County has a new landmark honoring veterans which had its debut on Veterans Day.
The club unveiled the new Blue Star Memorial By-Way marker on Tuesday afternoon. It is located at Nice Triangle Parkway at Howard and Manzanita on Highway 20.
About 80 people – including numerous veterans, local dignitaries and members of the California Garden Club leadership – attended the 45-minute ceremony, which included bagpiper Karen Seydel of Ukiah and the Lake County United Veterans Council Military Funeral Honors Team, which posted the flags of the US and California alongside the marker.
North Lake Garden Club President Henry Bethel explained that the marker is a tribute to all men and women who have served in the US armed forces, are serving now or will serve in the future.
The community, Bethel said, needs “to build a future worthy of their sacrifice.”
County Public Service Director Kim Clymire, into whose care the monument was officially passed on Tuesday, welcomed the visitors to the newest addition to the county's park system. He also thanked veterans for keeping the community free “to enjoy this beautiful paradise we live in.”
Potter Valley Garden Club President Betty Lindvig shared the history of the Blue Star Memorial program, which the National Garden Clubs of America adopted in 1946 to honor World War II veterans. It has since been expanded to honor all armed forces members.
Lindvig said the garden club members visualized a living memorial to all veterans, with the idea being to dedicate memorial highways to veterans from coast to coast. They've accomplished that goal, with memorial highways now to be found in every state in the union, including Hawaii and Alaska. The first memorial highway was dedicated in New Jersey.
There are three types of Blue Star memorial markers, Lindvig said: the Blue Star Memorial Highway, Blue Star Memorial Marker and the Blue Star Memorial By-Way Marker.
The by-way marker, which is what is now found at Triangle Parkway, was introduced in 1981 for placement at state lines, entrances to towns, intersections and rest areas, she explained.
The blue star is a symbol first introduced on service flags during World War I. During World War II, it was common to see families with sons and daughters in the military hanging the blue star flags in the windows of their homes, Lindvig noted. The flags didn't have the same popularity during the Korean and Vietnam wars, but more recently they've begun to be seen once more.
The new by-way marker in Nice is the second Blue Star memorial to be established in Lake County, said Lindvig. The first, a Blue Star marker located next to the Lake County Courthouse Museum in Lakeport, was placed by the Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Club and dedicated on Nov. 11, 1998, approximately 10 years ago.
In the Mendo-Lake Garden Club District as a whole, Lindvig noted there are a total of five Blue Star memorials. The others are located at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Bragg (by-way marker, dedicated Nov. 11, 1997); near the California Department of Forestry on Highway 101 (highway marker, dedicated Nov. 11, 2002 by the Willits Garden Club); and at Camp 20 Recreation Area of the Jackson Demonstration State Forest on Highway 20 (by-way marker, dedicated by the Mendo-Lake District on Nov. 11, 2006).
Robin Pokorski, president of the California Garden Clubs Inc., congratulated the North Lake Garden Club for its work and presented Bethel with a certificate in honor of the club's achievement.
Elijah Christopher of Lucerne, a Navy construction builder and second class petty officer BU2, recently returned from Iraq and was a guest of honor at the Tuesday ceremony.
Christopher, whose brother also was in Iraq while he was there, is the grandson of a World War II veteran. He recalled that his mother, Donna, keeps an article with his late grandfather's things that says those in the armed forces give the government a blank check for any amount, including their lives.
“I am lucky to be a Lake County serviceman,” said Christopher, adding his thanks to Operation Tango Mike for sending him care packages while he was overseas. He noted that he was happy to get back home to Lake County.
Pokorski and club member Gina-Belle Smith then removed a red, white and blue cloth that covered the brass Blue Star marker, which is affixed to large boulder at the park.
In officially passing the marker over to the county, the garden club's Blue Star chair, Sharon Thorne, noted that the marker couldn't have come to pass without the hard work of the club's 25 members, as well as support from the district and state garden clubs. Club members then placed flowers next to the marker.
District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing thanked veterans on behalf of a grateful community for their work to protect the country and democracy.
She urged everyone to fight for their freedoms every day.
“I don't think democracy comes as something that is static, I think it's something we have to work at,” she said.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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LUCERNE – A vehicle crashing into a power pole left thousands of customers without power for much of the morning on Tuesday as Pacific Gas and Electric staff worked to repair the damage.
PG&E reported that the outage occurred just after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A loud crash was heard through town as the vehicle collided with the pole. In some areas of town, the lights blinked off, came back on and then went out again.
Northshore Fire and the Lake County Sheriff's Office responded to the crash area, located on the east side of Highway 20 between 10th and 11th avenues. No injuries were reported.
Shortly before 2 a.m., sheriff's deputies were blocking the eastbound lane and directing traffic around the crash scene and the damaged pole.
For several hours officials diverted traffic through the middle turn lane while PG&E repaired the pole, the crossarms of which appeared to require replacement.
Highway 20 wasn't completely reopened until about 12:35 p.m., according to the California Highway Patrol. Even then, 10th Avenue was still closed due to pole repairs.
PG&E spokesperson Brandi Ehlers said 3,233 customers were impacted.
Power returned to some areas of town at around 2:30 a.m., with residents in other areas reporting that their power was off until 11 a.m. Ehlers said power was restored to all customers shortly after 1:30 p.m., 12 hours after the outage first occurred.
PG&E staff remained on scene until evening as they continued restoring the damaged power pole.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Bob Penny, the county's assistant veterans service officer and himself a Vietnam veteran, said the Veterans Services Office staff of three helps veterans and their dependents obtain the benefits due to them from local, state and federal agencies.
"That's our main purpose," he said.
It's a crucial task in Lake County, which has a large veterans population.
"We have about 8,000 veterans in our county, which is one of the highest veteran-to-population ratios in the state," he said.
The Veterans Administration is increasing medical services to veterans, particularly those in rural areas like Lake County, said Penny. "That is one of their big pushes right now."
There has been talk for many years of having a VA clinic in Lake County, and Penny said the agency – which has agreed a need exists here – is very seriously looking at locating a clinic in Clearlake, possibly in late 2009 or early 2010.
He said the VA is talking to doctors in Clearlake and discussing possibly locating a VA clinic in an Adventist Health clinic facility on Lakeshore.
Penny cautions, however, "Nothing is written in stone yet."
Lake County's veterans population is dominated by men and women who served in World War II, Korean and Vietnam, Penny said.
There also are a "handful" of veterans who have served in Iraqi and Afghanistan.
Local vets' No. 1 issue – across the generations – is medical care, said Penny.
The county's largest vet groups, World War II and Korean vets, are disappearing at a rapid pace, he said, as many of them reach their 80s and 90s.
Vietnam vets, in their 50s, 60s and some even older, have a variety of health issues as a legacy of their service, said Penny.
The biggest problem for Vietnam vets, he said, is a variety of cancers, diabetes and other conditions caused by Agent Orange exposure.
Dean Gotham, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 951, said his organization is particularly concerned about the VA's plan to end Agent Orange screenings for veterans.
"They're cutting it off," he said, although when that's supposed to take place hasn't been announced.
VVA also is concerned that the VA has dropped some levels of health care for vets, said Gotham.
The No. 1 issue facing local veterans, according to Gotham, "has been and will continue to be assured funding for veterans health care.
"The VA budget goes through too many ups and downs," he said.
Last year, the government raised VA funding by about $77 million in an effort to address the growing cost of veterans' medical care, said Gotham. But the Assured Funding for Veterans Health Care Act died in committee this year.
"Funding is more important now than what is has been," said Gotham. He said it's especially critical in preparing to care for vets of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gotham said another concern for veterans is that the California National Guard has the lowest benefits level in the country, which VVA is trying to change. He said the guard's poor benefits situation is ironic, considering that California has the largest population of veterans of any state.
"Our state could stand to pick it up a notch," he said.
When it comes to younger veterans, Penny said some of them are still in a stage of denial about any physical and mental problems they may have as a result of their service.
Their issues of denial, Penny said, may have more to do with their youth; many will seek help later.
Younger veterans' denial differs from that suffered by Vietnam vets in an important respect, said Penny. Vietnam vets didn't reach out for help "because they weren't accepted as veterans back then."
Even today, that stigma seems to haunt Vietnam veterans. Gotham notes that while he has contact with many Vietnam veterans, a lot of them are reluctant when committing to joining groups like VVA.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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