Local residents interested in commemorating Memorial Day will have two opportunities in Seal Beach this Monday. Services will be held at Navel Weapons Station Seal Beach at 11:00 am. The City of Seal Beach will hold a celebration starting at 1:00 PM.
Gregg Smith, spokesman for the Navel Weapons Station released the following information:
The United States National Submarine Memorial West, located at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, will be the site of annual public Memorial Day services Monday, May 31.
The 11:00 am observance will include the emotional "tolling the boats" ceremony, during which the name of each of the 52 U.S. submarines lost during World War Two is read aloud, along with the fate of each crew, as a bell is tolled. The Honorable Eunice Sato, former Mayor of the City of Long Beach, will be the guest speaker.
The free event will be open to the public and is hosted by the Los Angeles Area "Diesel Boaters" Chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II, and the Los Angeles-Pasadena Base of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. The submarine memorial is located aboard the Naval Weapons Station at 800 Seal Beach Boulevard, between Westminster Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, in the City of Seal Beach. For more information contact the Naval Weapons Station Public Affairs Officer, Mr. Gregg Smith, at (562) 626-7215.
At 1:00 PM, the celebration at Eisenhower Park, Ocean Blvd. Seal Beach, will begin with presentation of the colors by the Color Guard US Naval Sea Cadet Corps Seal Beach Battalion. This will be followed by the National Anthem and invocation by Pastor Don Shoemaker, Grace Community Church.
Representatives and officials from Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 4048 and American Legion Post 857, along with their Ladies Auxiliaries, will participate in the ceremony. The event is sponsored by these groups, plus the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce.
A selection of patriotic songs will be presented by the Los Alamitos High School Choir. TAPS will be presented by Talon Werner, a Life Scout from Boy Scout Troop 558, in Huntington Beach.
Laura Herzog, spokesperson for the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, told www.OC180NEWS there are no Memorial Day events scheduled at that base.
