Several Events Scheduled to Honor Those Who Fell in War

A lone bagpiper performing “Amazing Grace,” buglers sounding the solemn “Taps” and 21-gun salutes fired into calm, overcast skies will all be a part of Memorial Day ceremonies scheduled Monday in Ventura County.

Events to honor America’s fallen servicemen and servicewomen include services at cemeteries in Ventura, Camarillo, Oxnard and Westlake Village.

“In light of everything that’s going on right now in Kosovo, it seems like a particularly poignant holiday this year,” said Paul Kaufman, who was hanging the Stars and Stripes Saturday morning outside his small midtown home in Ventura.

* One of the grandest events of the day, the 1999 Conejo Valley Memorial Day Service, will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Garden of Valor at Pierce Brothers Valley Oak Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

The service will open with a concert by the Air National Guard Band of Southern California and include various choirs and other ensembles singing songs to salute each major conflict from the Revolutionary War to the current military action in the Balkans.

“It’s a Long Way to Tipperary,” “We Shall Always Remember” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” are some of the selections to be performed.

Actors portraying George Washington and Abraham Lincoln will recite historic speeches.

There will be prayers, the Pledge of Allegiance and an aerial salute by the Condor Squadron.

The service will be televised on a local cable channel.

It is being produced by the Conejo-Simi chapter of the Retired Officers Assn., the Military Order of the World Wars and members of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States, Post 123.

The public is invited.

The event should last at least 90 minutes. The cemetery is at 5600 Lindero Canyon Road.

* At Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, Garland Middleton of the Veterans Avenue of the Flags organization will lead a service that will include dignitaries presenting memorial wreaths.

A rendition of the “National Anthem” will be sung by Mary Hill of the Ventura Unified School District.

More than 800 American flags donated by families of deceased veterans will line the narrow streets inside Ivy Lawn and be on display through Saturday.

The keynote speaker will be author and political analyst David Chagall.

The Rev. Cherie Call will give the invocation and more than a dozen military color guards will stand at attention.

Ivy Lawn’s ceremony will run from 11 a.m. to noon at 5400 Valentine Road.

The public is invited.

* At Conejo Mountain Memorial Park in Camarillo, state Assemblyman Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) and county Supervisor Kathy Long will be among several invited guests making speeches.

Bagpiper Stephen Farrell will perform “Amazing Grace.”

The ceremony, titled “Lest We Forget,” will include keynote speaker Navy Capt. James W. Phillips, a decorated Gulf War veteran and commander of the Port Hueneme Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

The firing detail will be from American Legion Post 741 in Camarillo and a fly-over will be provided by the Confederate Air Force, Southern California Wing.

Conejo Mountain Memorial Park is at 2052 Howard Road.

The public is invited to the ceremony, as well as a free luncheon at the American Legion Post at 7 Nellora St.

* At Santa Clara Cemetery at 2370 North H St. in Oxnard, the public is welcome to attend an outdoor Catholic Mass in honor of Memorial Day.

The service starts at 10 a.m.