A day to remember

Heather Rawlyk

Tuesday, June 1, 2004 | 11:01 a.m.

Patti Thompson wiped debris from the headstone of her father's grave at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Boulder City prior to Memorial Day cermony Monday.

"To me Memorial Day has a lot of meaning," the Las Vegas resident of 25 years said, as she gazed on the grave of Merrill James Thompson. "To me it's a lot more than a barbecue."

Nearby, Lisa Dell, 20, and her boyfriend, Matthew Madill, 29, both of Henderson, used water and sponges to scrub the headstone for Dell's father, Roger Dell, giving it a gleaming shine in the midday sun.

Scenes such as those were commonplace as Monday's ceremony concluded a long holiday weekend of events honoring military members who died serving their country, as well as other deceased veterans.

Patti Thompson said she has spent every Memorial Day at the cemetery since her father, a merchant marine during World War II and later a Las Vegas Jazz Society guitarist and local glass shop owner, died on Sept. 11, 1996.

This was the first year Madill and Dell attended the Memorial Day ceremony to pay respects to Dell's father, a Vietnam veteran who received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star and died in 1998 at age 48.

"I came here this year because of Mike O'Callaghan," Madill said. O'Callaghan, a two-term Nevada governor, Korean War veteran and longtime chairman of the Las Vegas Sun, died in March. "He was a very good friend of my family for a long time and I'm here to pay my respects."

Prior to the 1 p.m. ceremony, a special presentation of the Bronze Star was made by Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to U.S. Army veteran Milton J. Duran of Southern Nevada.

The medal was awarded to Duran for "meritorious service with the U.S. Army in Germany during World War II, but was never received," Berkley said.

Prior to that Las Vegan Garry Kersey, a Vietnam veteran, received eight medals, including the Bronze Star and Distinguished Flying Cross, from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., during an informal ceremony at the Nevada Veterans Nursing Home in Boulder City.

Kersey had been approved for the medals 35 years ago, but had never received them. A friend and fellow Vietnam veteran, Paul Gargis, informed Ensign's office of the lost honors and Ensign's office submitted the paperwork.

Ensign pinned the Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Army Commendation Medal with "V" for valor and Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters on Kersey's chest as family members watched, Ensign spokeswoman Sari Mann said.

Kersey, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- Lou Gehrig's disease -- also received the National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with two bronze service stars, Republic of Vietnam campaign ribbon, the aviation badge and marksmanship bars.

At the cemetery, the ceremony sponsored by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Department of Nevada included the presentation of colors by the U.S. Navy Sea Cadet Color Guard Bruce Van Voorhis Memorial Squadron and short speeches by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep Jon C. Porter, R-Nev.

As the colors were retired, three vollies of seven were fired and "Taps" sounded.

Also as part of the services, former Lt. Gov. Dr. Lonnie Hammargren, a Las Vegas neurosurgeon who was a member of the 173rd Airborne brigade in the Vietnam War in 1965, displayed part of his own memorial wall to honor American soldiers who died in the the Middle East in the 21st century.

Hammargren, his wife Sandy, other friends and a handful of local tilers built the portion of the Mid-East Memorial Wall, which features the name, rank and home states of 544 American soldiers who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2000.

The final version, which is to make its debut on the Fourth of July, will include the more than 805 soldiers killed in Iraq and 125 killed in Afghanistan, Hammargren said.

"In Washington, D.C., they dedicated a memorial wall on Saturday for a war fought 60 years ago," Hammargren said of the World War II National Memorial. "But I'm an impatient man. I am dedicating a wall for our service men who have died this year."

Gabe Zohner, 61, a Vietnam vet and Las Vegan, stared at the wall with his daughter, Kim Johanson of Arizona.

"I'm very impressed with it," Zohner said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the final touches."

Sally Weedman, 19, of Henderson, and Chuck Jenson, 21, of Las Vegas, watched parachuters descend from the sky.

It was the second Memorial Day the couple spent in the cemetery to visit the grave of Weedman's grandfather, Robert J. Weedman, who was a paratrooper in World War II.

"I love how the vets are so patriotic and show up to this event in full uniform," Jenson said. "They look proud and they should be."

Weedman said she plans to make visiting the cemetery a Memorial Day tradition.

"It is so much more than just a holiday to me," she said. "I know from now on, this day will always make me think of my grandpa.

"It's a very meaningful day," she said.