Unmentioned on Memorial Day in Long Beach

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(May 29, 2017, 2:04 p.m.) -- Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia marked Memorial Day by typing on Twitter the names of 14 of LB's 15 servicemembers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan and transmitted a mass emailing (as in 2015 and 2016) that omitted recognizing one of 15 fallen servicemembers with ties to Long Beach: Jordan High graduate U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Veashna Muy, who died June 23, 2005 in Falluja, Iraq. at age 20. The son of Cambodian refugees, Lance Corporal Muy had hoped to make the military his career. [Our sources: here and here.]

That oversight was bad enough, but for some reason Garcia also didn't mention that all 15 of LB's Hometown Heroes who perished in Iraq and Afghanistan are honored by name with individual banners at LB's Rosie the Riveter Park and Interpretive Center (Clark Ave. at Conant St.) And he likewise didn't mention that the Park now includes a memorial wall with the names of nearly 7,000 U.S. servicemembers who've given their lives since 9/11.

The memorial wall at Rosie the Riveter Park was a project of the non-profit Honoring Our Fallen. Rosie the Riveter Park and the individual banners recognizing each of LB's 15 Hometown Heroes were projects of then-Long Beach Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske who raised privately donated funds to create the park and pay for the banners.

When Schipske was LB's 5th district Councilwoman, she annually held events at the park, honoring LB's fallen. Her successor, Councilwoman Stacy Mungo has not. Earlier today, Councilwoman Mungo Instagrammed a photo from a memorial ceremony at LB's Gold Star Manor, an important and meaningful venue. However today, as on every Memorial Day during their respective terms of office, it remains a puzzlement why neither Mayor Garcia nor Councilwoman Mungo have invited the public citywide to a Memorial Day event at the ELB park where the names of LB's most recent fallen servicemembers are memorialized. They are:

Stephen Castellano
Randy Collins
Anthony Davis Jr.
Israel Garcia
Ernesto Guerra
Andrew W. Harvell
Steven Hutchison
Thomas R. Macpherson
Veashna Muy
Lyndon Marcus Jr.
Roberto Martinez Salazar
Astor Sunsin-Pineda
David Toomalatai
George Torres
Joshua Whitaker

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