A special type of camaraderie

Andrew Sturgell remembers the worry he went through every day while his father served a tour of duty in Iraq between 2004 and 2005. Clad in his dad’s dress uniform, Andrew, 13, of Brea, proudly marched out before the Memorial Day crowd gathered Monday at the 48th Pacific View Memorial Park Annual Service in Corona del Mar to honor the soldiers who have died in battle.

Andrew, his sister Emily Sturgell, 15, and the rest of Celebration USA expressed their gratitude in several military-inspired numbers for the groups of veterans and their families waving flags in the late-morning air.

Celebration USA, a traveling patriotic-performance group led by Villa Park resident Paula Burton, had children in attendance from as far off as Temecula, Riverside and Santa Clarita.

“You feel sort of akin to each other,” Emily said in reference to the camaraderie service members and their families feel at gatherings like Monday’s. Both she and Andrew expressed a pride in continuing the tradition their father, Master Sgt. Dan Sturgell, now an ROTC instructor at Cal State Fullerton, has instilled in them.

“I’ve seen my dad do the job and it looks so cool,” Andrew said, adding that he plans to join the ROTC once he’s old enough to enlist.

The group has “brought a lot of attention to the dignity of the armed forces,” Burton said, and added that it was encouraging to see teens like Andrew and Emily show pride in their parent’s sacrifices.

After the kids’ routine a grave dedication and floral offering were presented by the legion’s auxiliary unit and Eagle’s Wing Bereavement Support Group for Military Widows and Widowers.

“We appreciate you honoring the holiday in the purpose for which it was created,” Randy Eling, commander of American Legion Post 291 on the Balboa Peninsula, said to the hundreds in attendance. Eling, the son of a veteran before becoming one himself, knew exactly where he should be on this holiday.

The day is meant for more than “going to a mattress sale or a trip to Las Vegas,” Eling said. “We need to remember the purpose of this day and the people sacrificed for [our] freedom.”

Originally called Decoration Day, the holiday was “designated for the purposed of strewing with flowers...the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country,” Steve Sutherland read to the crowd from General John A. Logan’s 1868 Memorial Day Order.

The day was intended to preserve and strengthen “those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors and marines,” Sutherland continued. “What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foe?”

Revering the injured living held just as much importance for Eling as honoring the dead.

“It’s about the veterans, not just those that did not return,” Eling said. Injured veterans, “may not have died but they made just as much sacrifice,” by losing limbs and sustaining physical harm that permanently altered their lives.

The ceremony closed with a gun salute, followed with “Taps” played by 83-year-old WWII veteran Lloyd Glick; the “National Anthem” sung by Darvy Traylor; and the release of nearly 40 white doves. Eling’s command ends this month at the Legion post. The Fountain Valley resident said he looks forward to taking things easy.