CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
At the National Memorial of the Pacific at Punchbowl yesterday, Dolores and Simplicio Felicilda visited the grave of their son.
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Remembered
Despite a shortage of cemetery leis, loved ones and visitors make sure vets are honored
People visiting loved ones at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe yesterday helped make sure most of the graves were decorated on Memorial Day.
A shortage of donations left about 5,000 graves at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe without leis for Memorial Day. Leis went to graves that did not already have flowers. Still, there were some graves yesterday that had neither.
RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM
Bobby Walterick served a meal to Jacob Crossman in an Ala Moana Park event sponsored by the advocacy group U.S. Vets.
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Lois McCartney took flowers from her husband's grave and put them on those that did not have any.
"I put water, too," she said, because "we're all brothers and sisters in this world together."
The Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery gets leftover donations to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl, but donations ran short.
Veteran Services Coordinator Carswell Ross said there were a few years in which the number of Memorial Day leis came close to the number of graves, but it is always fewer.
"It used to be that some of the schools would compete. ... One school would provide 10,000 to 12,000 leis," he said.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Gov. Linda Lingle was assisted by Airman 1st Class Yessenia Davis yesterday as she laid a wreath during the Governor's Memorial Day Ceremony at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery. In photo above, business for the Hawaii Superferry appeared to be booming this Memorial Day weekend. Spokeswoman Lori Abe said a large number of cars and people have been traveling to and from Maui.
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Most of the leis came from schools on the neighbor islands, Ross said, particularly from the Big Island. But schools are not donating as many leis as before, he said.
"We're trying to enlist the senior citizen centers and everybody else to also do it, but it's always going to be a struggle from now on," he said.
At the Memorial Day Ceremony at Punchbowl, Mayor Mufi Hannemann reminded people yesterday to remember and honor all of the men and women who fought and died on behalf of our country, from World War I to today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Gov. Linda Lingle delivered the Memorial Day address at Kaneohe, stressing the importance of honoring the men and women in uniform and their families who are making sacrifices today.
"Those who oppose basic human freedoms would be killing even more innocent people if courageous troops weren't willing to stand up for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan and other places in the worldwide war against terrorism," she said.
