Mayor to give holiday
speech at Punchbowl

His Memorial Day speech
will begin the Monday service

Mayor Mufi Hannemann will deliver his first Memorial Day address Monday at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

The mayor's annual Memorial Day service will begin at 8:30 a.m. and will conclude with the playing of taps, a 21-cannon salute and a flyby of Hawaii Air National Guard F-15 jet fighters.

Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona will stand in for Gov. Linda Lingle and will deliver the keynote address at the 1 p.m. governor's Memorial Day ceremony at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe, with the flyover provided by Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 463.

At Schofield Barracks, Col. Howard Killian, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, will be the guest speaker at the Army's 11:30 a.m. Monday Memorial Day ceremony at the post's cemetery.

Don Cook, representing the Military Order of the Purple Heart, will join Killian and Command Sgt. Maj. Bruce Roberts in placing a wreath at the cemetery's flagpole at the end of the ceremony.

A Memorial Day observance to honor submariners will begin at 11 a.m. Monday at the Parche Memorial in the Pearl Harbor Naval Station. Rear Adm. Jeffrey Cassias, commander of Pacific Fleet's Submarine Force, will be the guest speaker.

The Hawaii chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II and Bowfin Pearl Harbor Base, Submarine Veterans Inc. organized the event.

At Ala Moana Beach Park, the seventh annual lantern floating ceremony, sponsored by Shinnyo-en Hawaii, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday at Magic Island.

The floating of thousands of paper lanterns in a ceremony, known as Toro Nagashi, is practiced in Japan to pay respect to ancestors and to comfort the spirits of the dead.

Sunday night, the Vietnam Veterans Post 10583 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, in cooperation with the American-Vietnamese Coalition, will sponsor a candlelight ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. Speakers will be Capt. Cao Tiep Khac, South Vietnam commander, and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Henry "Hank" Stackpole III.

Members of the Vietnam Vets Motorcycle Club and other motorcycle chapters in Hawaii, coordinated by Jesse Baker, will gather at Kakaako Park and will arrive in a motorcade at Punchbowl at 5:45 p.m. The candlelight ceremony will begin at 6 p.m.