BETWEEN THE PAGEANTRY of the uniformed color guard, the affecting scale of an aircraft carrier and the excitement of military jets flying in formation overhead, it was easy to forget that Memorial Day was about remembering the dead.
“It’s 13:30 hours, time to start,” Vietnam War veteran Joe LoParo declared, calling into focus a crowd of about 200 that had gathered on board the USS Hornet — a massive, retired aircraft carrier and museum docked at Old Alameda Point in Alameda.
Veterans and their families, as diverse as the population of the East Bay, sang the national anthem as the flag was presented.
“I’m here to tell you I’ve got some hard truths. Not all wounds are visible,” said LoParo. “Some come home from service with battles that never stop. Memories that never fade. Pain that isolates them, and trauma that festers. Too many. It’s easy to commemorate in all the speeches and ceremonies, but the deeper challenge, the more enduring tribute, is to ask ourselves, are we living lives worthy of their sacrifice?”
U.S. Navy Commander Michael Molloy, a native of Missoula, Montana, reminded everyone that Memorial Day is not about retail sales or barbecues or three-day weekends. It’s about service members who put on a uniform and never come home.”People like Lowell, Brian, John and many others who should still be here but aren’t,” said Molloy, as he recalled his lost friends and told the story of Lieutenant Wes Van Dorn, a pilot who died in 2014, when his helicopter experienced a catastrophic fire off the coast of Virginia during what was supposed to be a routine training flight.
“His death was a tragedy and also a reminder that service and sacrifice are not confined to battlefields,” said Molloy.
Official speakers at the event and members of the crowd told stories of military deaths that happened away from the battlefront, including those that illustrate the toll of war on mental health.
A 2021 study by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University found that more than four times more active-duty personnel who served after 9/11 died by suicide than in combat.
Not all wounds are visible. Some come home from service with battles that never stop. Memories that never fade. Pain that isolates them, and trauma that festers. Too many.
Joe LoParo, Vietnam War veteran
According to the 2024 National Veteran Suicide Prevention annual report released by the Veteran’s Administration, there were 6,407 deaths by suicide among veterans in 2022, an average of 17.5 deaths by suicide every day.
Felix Vasquez, from New York City, said he had a friend that came back from Vietnam after being exposed to Agent Orange who suffered mentally as well as physically.
“He walked backwards for a year. He kind of went off the deep end,” said Vasquez. “He held a black Satanic Bible in his hand for a year. He had big time PTSD.”
Vasquez enlisted in the Air Force in New York, which was a different experience than his friends back home in Puerto Rico, he said.
“The kids that were raised in Puerto Rico, they were recruited, but they couldn’t vote for the president of the United States,” he said.
Robert Rose, a marine who served in Desert Storm, said his father suffered and died from throat cancer after returning from Vietnam.
“We were in the process of trying to get it connected with Agent Orange, when he passed away in January of 2020,” said Rose.
After the speeches, an air of solemnity hushed the crowd as the color guard stepped outside on the elevated platform carrying the ceremonial wreath. Taps played as flags caught the wind. The wreath was dropped overboard into the water, as veterans and their families followed the gesture, throwing flower petals into the wind.
The post Veterans share memories at Memorial Day Commemoration 2025 on board USS Hornet appeared first on Local News Matters.