 | | | Honor guard presenting the colors: Andrew, Elizabeth, and James Davis under command of LTC Karl Davis, USA. Photo Melinda Davis | | | | | | The morning on Nov. 11 was chilly and overcast. The air at the Moraga Commons at the Veterans Memorial was inviting for the small gathering of Moraga veterans and several others who assembled to honor our nation's veterans. This was not the customary Veterans Day ceremony; public safety concerns arising due to the coronavirus pandemic necessitated changes to the proceedings. Karl Davis, retired Lt. Colonel, US Army Corps of Engineers and John Haffner, retired Captain, US Navy Supply Corps, and Michael Metcalf, former Lieutenant, US Navy Seabees, planned for an event of approximately 30 persons, spread out before the Veteran's Memorial rock, which had been designed and constructed by Boy Scout Tony Knox as his Eagle Scout project in 2010. In the event, 40 persons participated, all wearing appropriate face masks and maintaining suitable distances from one another.
The brief ceremony began promptly at 1100 hours, with a call from LTC Davis for the bugler, Quinn Ricketts, to sound Assembly. The colors were trooped to the memorial by an honor guard comprising Elizabeth, Andrew, and James Davis. The Invocation was delivered by Capt. Tom Marnane, retired US Navy. Capt. Haffner then recited important points of history of Veterans Day: Established as a national holiday in 1938, it was then known as Armistice Day. On that day, the Allied armies, including the United States, met with their German and Austrian foes and agreed to an armistice calling for peace and an end to the Great War (World War I). That was at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. The day was subsequently nominated "Veterans Day" by the Eisenhower administration in the 1950s, in order to cover World War II and the Korean War, and now the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in other parts of the world.
Capt. Haffner then introduced Michael Metcalf who delivered remarks entitled "The Power of Their Service," in which he explained how the men and women of the armed forces - Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine - all serve their communities by applying themselves for the maintenance of our freedom through application of their talents and their efforts, and their sacrifices. It is to honor all the veterans that this ceremony was being conducted.
A closing prayer was offered by Chaplain David Peery, VFW Post 8063, followed by the bugler sounding "Taps." With this the ceremony was closed. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA