By Khalida Sarwari
Veteran’s Day means different things to different people and at a memorial event in Cupertino this afternoon, it meant remembering lives that have been lost and honoring the service of the soldiers who have passed as well as those who are fighting abroad today.
Six years ago, 67-year-old Corky Axelson of Cupertino lost his 29-year-old son Matthew, a U.S. Navy SEAL, to the war in Afghanistan. A statue in tribute to Matthew Axelson called The Guardians now stands at the Veterans Memorial Park in Cupertino.
Standing before the statue, Corky Axelson reminisced about the 16 months he served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam as a 21-year-old. He said in one way that war, which ended 36 years ago, feels like ages ago and in other ways, some memories are so clear in his mind, it is as if the events occurred just yesterday.
Axelson said he tries to remember the good times, like a night when he was stationed at a base at a sea and went fishing with his fellow comrades. Afterward, they had one of the best meals he had ever had, Axelson said.
He remembered working with orphanages in the villages where soldiers left behind their weapons. It was times like those that made them forget they were fighting in a war, he said.
“There were a lot of special times,” Axelson remembered. “You try to forget the things that are disturbing and give you nightmares.”
Fellow Vietnam War veteran Dutch Lindsey said he is bothered by the aftermath of the war, by the unexploded bombs, shells and mines that are scattered in Vietnam and have injured or killed many Vietnamese since the war against the United States ended in 1975.
The 60-year-old San Jose resident served in the U.S. Marine Corps at 18 years old. Now his 23-year-old son Travis is awaiting his first deployment to Afghanistan in March.
“I don’t want him to go, but I’m not going to stop him,” Lindsey said. “We all have obligations and responsibilities.”
In a way, war is an inevitable part of life, said Dianne Layfield, a 61-year-old Fremont woman whose 19-year-old son Travis was killed in action in the war in Iraq. She said he chose to enlist in the Marines Corps and was killed in April 2004 after just three weeks in Iraq.
“None of us like war, but unfortunately wars have been going on for hundreds of years,” she said. “We’re just blessed for the ones that step up to the plate.”
Dennis Whittaker, a 65-year-old veteran from Cupertino, received a standing ovation after sharing his experience during the community gathering today where a traveling replica of the 380-feet long Vietnam War Veterans Memorial Wall was displayed.
Whittaker said he considers himself “extremely lucky” for escaping the tragic fate of having his name engraved in the wall, which holds the names of the 58,253 Americans who died in the war.
“We don’t like being the policemen of the world. We like being with our families on Christmas,” he said. But, wars have to be fought, Whittaker said, to “keep our country safe.”
At 11 a.m. on Friday, a formal Veterans Day event will be held with high-ranking military brass and representatives from various military branches.
The traveling wall, which is 80 percent to scale of the original wall at the National Monument in Washington, D.C. and is part of the “American Veterans Traveling Tribute” that is being exhibited across the country, will be on display in Memorial Park, located at Stevens Creek Boulevard and Anton Way.
The exhibit is free and will be available for viewing around-the-clock through Nov. 13.
