Large crowd turns out at Mount Soledad to salute vets

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By Dolwain Green

Several hundred local and areas residents joined dignitaries such as event keynote speaker, Brigadier General Daniel Yoo, Commanding General, MCRD to honor veterans at the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial on Saturday.

A plaque for decorated Army Air Corps Capt. Louis Zamperini was dedicated during the event. It joins those on the memorial walls honoring veterans from the U.S. Revolutionary War to present day conflicts around the world. His story of surviving 47 days on a raft in the Pacific and and tortured during a lengthy captivity in Japanese camps is told in the best-selling book “Unbroken.” His family was on hand for the ceremony, held at the same time he was speaking at a veterans tribute in Long Beach.

According to retired Col Robert Porter, trustee from the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association, with over 3,000 granite plaques honoring veterans, Mt. Soledad is the only memorial with photo engraved pictures and war records back to the Civil War, and the second largest war memorial in the U.S. after the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C.. The event was organized by the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association.