GONZALES — Gonzales American Legion Post 81 hosted its annual Memorial Day Observance on Monday morning at Gonzales Cemetery.
Dozens of community members, including Gonzales Mayor Pro Tem Liz Silva, attended the May 26 event that honors soldiers who served in one of the U.S. military branches.
“This is a day we honor all of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and including those who did come back and ensure our freedom,” Silva said. “My father made it back from World War II, my uncles made it back. But, I have friends who lost uncles. There’s a Gold Star Mother here in Gonzales, and I believe she lost three or four sons in World War II. So to me, she gave the ultimate sacrifice.”
A presentation of the flags was led by Soledad High’s Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps, followed by a 21-gun salute fired by the Gonzales Police Explorers. Silva then read the names of soldiers who served dating back to the Civil War.
“It’s a manner in which not only the Legion or any veteran can honor those that have fallen and those who are going to fall because of being involved in a combat or military service,” said American Legion District 28 Commander Paul Guzman, who served with the U.S. Coast Guard from 1979-82. “It’s basically to keep their legacy alive, and that’s the most important thing to me.”
Guzman has had fellow comrades who served in the Vietnam War and later died from complications of Agent Orange. He also knew several friends who went into combat in Afghanistan and Iraq but never returned home.
But it was World War II veteran and Gonzales resident Louie Escher, who passed away in 2020, that made a huge impact in Guzman’s life.
“[Escher] was in his 90s and the dude was like a bull,” Guzman said. “That was the one that hurt me the most because back then a lot of our veterans, they didn’t tell us what we can and can’t do as far as when we get out…Louie went all those decades without ever getting help.”
Other Memorial Day services took place this year in Soledad and Greenfield, where the respective communities also remembered those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
