Surf City honors vets

Jenny Marder

A Blackhawk helicopter pilot who was fatally shot down in Iraq on

Friday was honored at a Veterans Day ceremony in Huntington Beach,

adding a sobering element to an already solemn event.

The helicopter that Sgt. Paul Neff commanded was shot down over

Tikrit, and it burned along the eastern bank of the Tigris River.

Neff, who was from Fort Mill, S.C., and had family in Huntington

Beach, died with five other soldiers.

About 100 veterans, soldiers and Surf City residents gathered at

Huntington Beach Pier Plaza at 11 a.m. Tuesday to honor those

fighting overseas, to remember those, like Neff, who lost their lives

in battle, and to reflect on pasts spent in combat.

Lt. Col. Jim Ghormley said he feels the presence of all soldiers,

“from Concord to now,” on Veterans Day. Ghormley served with the U.S.

Army and the Army National Guard from 1965 to 1997.

“If we don’t remember where we’ve been, we’ll never be able to

remember where to go,” Ghormley said. “It’s a great honor to be

present with them and to honor their sacrifice. Their memory will not

be forgotten.”

Veterans Day, formerly known as Armistice Day, was conceived as a

national holiday on Nov. 11, 1918, when the allied powers signed the

cease-fire agreement with Germany that marked the end of World War I.

Now, veterans of all U.S. wars are honored at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month of every year.

Capt. Timothy Richards, who served in peacetime Korea and in

Vietnam during the war there, has spent the last year searching for

his fellow infantrymen.

“The date is so intriguing,” Richards said. “The 11th day, the

11th month, the 11th hour, they signed a peace treaty. It’s what

every soldier is looking for -- someone to sign a peace treaty so

that they can go home.”

While in Vietnam, Richards, a captain in the Army Corps of

Engineers, built roads, bridges and camps in the jungle.

He remembers building a bridge over a stream that was one ox cart

wide for the chief of a village near the city of Tay Ninh and

revamping another army bridge to speed the crossing by water buffalo.

He also remembers spending countless hours working to deactivate

mines along the roads of South Vietnam.

On Feb. 15, 1968, Richards’ company was ambushed, and 10 of his

men were killed.

Earlier this year, Richards and two other soldiers went to

Deersville, Ohio, a small town with a population of 50 in the winter

and 150 in the summer. There, they met with the father and sisters of

a fellow soldier who died in the ambush. This March, he plans to

visit the family of his platoon leader in Louisiana.

“We’re putting together a memorial, and we will present a Capitol

Hill flag to his family,” Richards said.

Huntington Beach residents put their lives on hold for a moment

during the day Tuesday to pray for the veterans of this generation:

the thousands fighting on the soil of Iraq and Afghanistan.

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. Michael Vacca, who recently returned

from Iraq, told the crowd what he had told his own men before sending

them into across the border and into Kuwait.

“I got the men together in a big, huge tent and told them who they

had to answer to,” Vacca said. “They had to answer to the veterans

who stood in their place years before them and who felt the same fear

in their stomach as they were feeling on that day. If they did not do

their best, they were shaming the men who had gone forth and made

America the place it is today.”