A Field of Healing and Honor

On Sunday, with a fraught election threatening to overwhelm, a man in a blue business suit mounted the lectern and addressed the crowd, telling them how to stay alive. No, not President Trump, not Joe Biden. Fraught races are in play in the Antelope Valley too.

Mayor Steve Hofbauer got on stage, and welcomed a couple hundred mostly masked, mostly distanced, patriots to Pelona Vista Park just west of the 14 Freeway. Neither red, nor blue, was the crowd. They showed up for the red, white and blue.

Sunday opened 11 days of the Field of Healing and Honor, a display of 2,020 American flags - tagged with names in honor of troops, veterans, firefighters and law enforcement, and health care workers. The flags, aligned row on row, will be displayed until Veterans Day.

Two of the mayor's election rivals were in the audience, City Councilwoman Laura Bettencourt, and businessman Rick Norris, a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War. Everyone was mannerly.

Rep. Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, and a Navy fighter pilot who flew missions over Iraq, was keynote speaker. Also in the audience was his election opponent, Assemblywoman Christy Smith, D-Santa Clarita. State lawmakers also attended, Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a retired career California Highway Patrol veteran - and state Sen. Scott Wilk. Wilk's campaign opponent, Kipp Mueller, also showed up. Wilk said he was moved to tears by seeing something that brings people together.

Assemblyman Lackey, survivor of a bout of coronavirus, lamented partisan politics, and Wilk, known for working with both sides of the aisle in Sacramento, echoed that sentiment. So, what was everybody out there to do?

One big thing was just to celebrate the beauty of the flags, on a perfect day under blue skies. If you followed CDC guidelines, your attendance would not jeopardize your health and safety, or others. Most wore masks, and if alert, you could see the others coming and move out of the way. Did we say 100,000 new infections daily, and nearly a quarter-million dead, among them 4,000 veterans who died at VA facilities?

Beyond the pageantry of the flags, were the names. Tag affixed to the flags honor the line of duty, lives, and line of duty deaths. In our Valley, we have parks named for peace officers, Steve Owen and Stephen Sorensen, killed in the line of duty. And firefighters, like L.A. County Fire Capt. Ted Hall, and Arnie Quinones. Flags honored comrades who died during the wretched Covid season, like Korean War Air Force veteran Ed Galindo, and Marine Corps veteran Jerry Lawrence.

The flags also bore the names of our troops in service killed in the wars since the terror attacks of 9/11 - like Marine Staff Sgt. Allan Kendall Walker, killed in 2004 in Iraq. Air Force Capt. Victoria Pinckney-Castro went to school with my son, Garrett, from Desert Rose Elementary through graduation from Palmdale High in 2003. He went straight to the Marines and the battle of Fallujah, and survived. She went to the Air Force Academy, flew missions in Afghanistan support. She was killed May 3, 2013. With more than 2,000 flags to mark this turbulent 2020 year, there were many people to honor, and remember.

Volunteers made the project happen, with Volunteer Coordinator Stacia Nemeth, and key city staffers Annie Pagliaro and Linda Willis, keeping a complex event on track.

The guy in the blue business suit? City Manager J.J. Murphy, a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. With the City Council's backing, and the Palmdale Auto Mall Association's support, "J.J." developed the concept from an earlier project. He's the son of a Philadelphia police officer, brother of a former Army Secretary, and retired Air Force major who deployed in the War on terror.

Murphy, addressing the audience, swept back tears. He wondered aloud why such gestures are important.

Then he remembered the woman who approached him, after an earlier honor field display. She was so despondent that she planned to end her life that day, he recalled. A flagpole toppled and tapped her sharply. She looked at the name on the flag, and concluded the honored veteran was telling her to go on living. A suicide was prevented, and J.J. said, "I will remember that always."

We never know when a symbolic gesture will translate into real action for the good. So, the flags are more than decoration. They can give us courage for the journey.

A city staffer at the Sunday event fainted, dropping to the ground. First on her was Mayor Hofbauer, a retired firefighter-paramedic, joined by a dozen firefighter-paramedics. She was OK, but the Field of Healing and Honor was the right place to be at that moment.

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Dennis Anderson is a licensed clinical social worker at High Desert Medical Group. An Army veteran, he deployed to Iraq twice with local National Guard troops to cover the war for the Antelope Valley Press. He works on veterans and community health initiatives.