Memorial Day Ceremony: VFW event expected to draw hundreds to SP Cemetery
May 20, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The May 25 Memorial Day Ceremony will have something different this year: a special remembrance for those Missing in Action and Prisoners of War.
And the former includes a Santa Paulan who was lost in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam War.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Mercer-Prieto Post 2043 Commander Jerry Olivas will be the featured speaker at the annual Memorial Day Ceremony to be held Monday at Santa Paula Cemetery at the GAR Monument. The event will start at 10:15 a.m. with a musical prelude by the Isbell Middle School Band and the program will start at 10:30 a.m.
Following opening remarks and introductions, the Isbell Middle School Band will play “The National Anthem” and Ventura County Fire Chaplain Kay Wilson-Bolton will offer the Invocation.
“This year’s ceremony will be in memory of all American Prisoners of Wars and Missing In Action,” said Olivas.
He will address the United States policy regarding POW/MIA issues and note that at least one of Santa Paula’s own, Jim Ray Cavender, is MIA. Cavender, a 21-year-old helicopter pilot and his crew went down during a non-battle mission November 4, 1969 in South Vietnam. Their bodies were never found.
There will be a Roll Call of Santa Paula Veterans who died in World War I, World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam and then the acclaimed Ventura Fire Fighters Pipes and Drums Corps will perform “Amazing Grace.”
Carlos Lopez will read the poem “Freedom is not Free” followed by the Flag Folding Ceremony, which demonstrates not only how the flag is folded but also the meaning behind each fold.
Dr. George Golden, Pastor of the First Baptist Church, Fillmore and Father Charles Lueras of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Santa Paula, will offer closing prayers.
There will be a 3-Volley Rifle Salute by VFW M-P Post 2043 and the KWVA-VC 56 Veterans Rifle Squad.
“Taps” by Bugler Rudy Arellano will close the ceremony.
Santa Paula Cemetery is located at 380 Cemetery Road.
Olivas said Jim Ray’s brother, James, who still lives in Santa Paula, will place a special wreath during the Memorial Day Ceremony.
Olivas said members of the veterans’ organization will meet with Boy Scouts early Monday morning to decorate the cemetery with hundreds of American flags for the ceremony, which draws hundreds of Santa Paulans.
