StarBulletin.com

Parade, memorials top Veterans Day


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POSTED: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

American military veterans will be honored today with the annual Wahiawa parade and memorial services at two Oahu cemeteries.

» The 10 a.m. parade will proceed along California Avenue from Kaala Elementary School to Wahiawa District Park. Maj. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, commander of the 25th Infantry Division, will be guest speaker in a program that will feature a massing of the colors and military equipment displays. Retired Army Lt. Col. Yoshiaki Kakazu, a Vietnam War veteran, is grand marshal of the parade, sponsored by the Wahiawa Lions Club.

» The 11 a.m. memorial service at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl will feature U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., as keynote speaker. Webb is a former Marine, a Vietnam veteran and former secretary of the Navy.

» A 1:15 p.m. program at Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe will feature Steve Muro, U.S. Veterans Administration deputy undersecretary for memorial affairs, as speaker.

Muro will present a check for $2.75 million for expansion and improvement of the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Kailua-Kona to Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, state adjutant general, and Mark Moses, director of the state Office of Veterans Services.