It seems easy enough to get the wrong impression while attending a Memorial Day service that the event is about old men and something that happened to them, long ago and far away.
At least that is how some people might view the ceremonies that have taken place over the last few years at Eisenhower Park in Seal Beach. The Memorial Day services there have brought some of the same aging veterans from the local Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Posts who are on hand to honor the comrades they left on battlefields in wars that can seem as distant and ethereal as stories we’ve read of U.S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in our history schoolbooks. The first two World Wars may seem like fading memories in dusty books or fodder for Hollywood storytelling. The Korean War and its veterans seem all but forgotten and Vietnam remains a sore subject for too many to dwell upon for very long. There are still a lot of vets of Vietnam whose mantra remains one of saying they’d rather not talk about it. It’s hard to blame them when you consider how they were often treated upon their return home.
It seems too easy for many of us these days to blot out the reality of the significance of Memorial Day and the sacrificed lives that paid for our freedoms. Perhaps we have become a bit too insulated in the bubble of our day-to-day existence. Maybe we are desensitized by the bombardment of images and sound bites in our modern lives. It must be harder for our generations to relate as deeply as earlier ones to the costs of war and price of our freedom and our way of life.
This Monday’s Memorial Day ceremonies in the little park overlooking the Seal Beach pier were different than in recent years. One couldn’t help but notice the added accoutrement of the framed combat fatigue shirt that graced the background. In the front row, near the shirt sat what turned out to be the family of the late U.S. Army Ranger Sgt. Thomas R. MacPherson.
MacPherson was a 20-year-old graduate of Los Alamitos High School when he announced to his family that he had enlisted in the Army with the intention of becoming a Ranger. His father Troy, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy, said he knew then that despite the concerns for his son’s safety, he knew his son was destined for greatness. In days before he faced the challenges to be accepted into the elite fighting force, Troy MacPherson saw his son change from the kid who would not clean up his room. He quickly became the man who began training in earnest with tough physical exercise and cautious eating habits in order to be up to making his goal and becoming a protector of his country and its people.
Thomas MacPherson found his purpose in the Rangers. By the time he was 26, he was still serving his country. He had also become a dedicated husband and father along the way. Then, on Oct. 12, 2012, during his fifth deployment to the war-torn region and his fourth to Afghanistan, he was killed by small arms fire while on patrol in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province.
For many in the region of the Los Alamitos Unifed School District, the war had come home to their doorstep. There was a large turnout for a motorcade that brought MacPherson’s body through the town. Hundreds gathered at Cottonwood Church in Los Alamitos that Friday morning to pay their respects. It seemed that many students from Los Alamitos High School were deeply affected by the MacPherson family’s loss. Meanwhile, the local American Legion post changed its name in honor of MacPherson and his sacrifice.
During Monday’s services in Seal Beach, Cliff Telasky of American Legion Post 857 shook hands with Troy MacPherson who was invited to speak. He did so, and very bravely I might add. As a parent with a son of my own, I don’t think I could have been as composed as he was as he spoke to the crowd. His speech was brief; yet so was President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. His words did ring true, however, and the MacPherson family’s presence alone was enough to touch the hearts of those assembled in the park. They reminded all that our struggle for and the cost of our freedom is ongoing, even as the banners and flags were rolled up and stored until we’ll take them out again to remind ourselves of the price of our freedom and those who’ve paid it.
As I was getting ready to leave the park, I was approached by Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian the mother of Matt Manoukian, the Seal Beach resident who was one of three U.S. Marines shot and killed in August of 2012. Manoukian, 29, had been killed (murdered) after being invited to a meeting in a Taliban stronghold to talk about security issues.
She thanked me for the story and I felt bad that at first I did not remember even doing the story. Later, when I did I could not help but feel a little disappointed in myself that all I could think was that doing the story was the least I could do for the sacrifices made by her son and others like Thomas MacPherson. A little later still, I figured it was unfortunate that I, like so many others on the sidelines, too often do the least we can do.
Dennis Kaiser is the editor of the Sun Newspaper.
