While saluting the service and sacrifices of veterans, it’s also important to support them and their families as they face economic, mental health and other challenges well after leaving the military, one speaker said Saturday during a Veterans Day ceremony in Lompoc.
“Our veterans deserve the best possible care and support. We must do everything we can to ensure they have the resources they need to succeed,” said Chief Master Sgt. Cherise Mosely, senior enlisted Airman for Space Launch Delta 30 at Vandenberg Space Force Base. “We must endeavor to continue being worthy of their sacrifices by working toward a more perfect union protecting the freedoms they have fought to defend.”
The front of the Lompoc Veterans Memorial Building served as the site for the community’s ceremony attracting approximately 40 people.
Similar ceremonies took place in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Solvang and Orcutt on Saturday morning with a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch and landing providing the exclamation point to the celebrations across the Central Coast.
“Today, people will gather in communities across America from major cities to small towns, but I would argue that it’s in smaller communities like this one where these occasions have a more profound effect, because it’s in small communities like this where the impact of service is deeply felt,” Mosely said.
Mosely noted that Lompoc has a storied past that echoes the courage and resilience of those who have served in the military.
“The city has witnessed the selflessness of heroes who have emerged from these streets, these schools and these neighborhoods answering the call of duty to defend the freedoms we hold dear,” Mosely added.
She noted several local veterans, including Albert “Abbie’” Ramirez, who served in the Army as a paratrooper and conducted his final jump at 90 years old.
“He recently passed, but his legacy of service lives on in the community,” Mosley said.
The Lompoc Veterans and Associates Council, led by Soledad Kennedy, organized the event, which included speeches by Santa Barbara County Third District Supervisor Joan Hartmann, Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne, Councilman Jeremy Ball, police Capt. Augustin “Chip” Arias, Sheriff Bill Brown and others.
Musical performances were by singer Shelie Jackson and bagpiper Moon Man Whitehead, who played the hymns for the various military branches, while Boy Scout Troop 394 presented the colors.
Brown recalled the plight of his parents’ friends’ son, Army Staff Sgt. James Michael Ray, who remains listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War. During high school, Brown said, he wore a prisoner of war/missing in action bracelet for Ray.
When Brown moved to Lompoc, he said, he was surprised to see Ray’s POW/MIA bracelet included on a Lompoc mural saluting veterans.
“At the time, I thought it was an incredible coincidence, and I thought afterwards of some words my former undersheriff used to say — that coincidences are just really God’s way of remaining anonymous,” Brown said.
The connection remains since he remembers “Jimmy” when driving by the mural plus on Veterans Day and Memorial Day, Brown said.
“To the men and women who served us in our armed forces so selflessly, we are grateful to you every day for our freedom, and we will not take it for granted,” Brown said.
