Wall of Honor adds more

Alpine's Wall of Honor saw the addition of more names during Veteran's Day ceremonies at the Alpine Community Center.

A Veterans Day musical tribute was held Nov. 10 and the Alpine Veteran’s Wall of Honor had more veterans’ names added to the wall—which already has 700 — in a morning dedication ceremony that started at the Alpine Com­munity Center.

“We celebrate the lives of the wonderful service people,” said singer Carol Compton.

Compton was one of the sing­ers in the line-up for the musi­cal tribute with her rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

The musical and spoken word tribute included performances by Linzy Gowing, Peter Hastings, Sam Nehemiah, Jim Pontzious, Deanne Miller, Stan Christian­son, and Diana Saenger.

Vietnam veteran Dan Foster, was the master of ceremonies.

Foster was a pivotal force in es­tablishing the Alpine Veteran’s Wall of Honor, along with other board members such as Diana Saenger, Rod Galloway, and Deb­bie Jackson.

The wall recently saw the addi­tion of 19 more names of service members from a variety of mili­tary branches.

The names added to the wall are: Jerry M. Pondelicek, George Soto, Billy Pate, Billy Shepherd, Donald Lumb Sr., Donald Lumb II, Eric Ramirez, Clayton Baum, William Riddell, Harold Michael Faurot, Hector De La Torre, Fran­cisco Alfaro, Javier De La Torre, Robert V. Ring, Lewis Stauffer, Mark Webb, Steven Hudson, Al­bert Underwood Jr., and Samuel McClurkin.

Former Viejas Tribal Chair­man and member of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians      An­thony Pico spoke to those in at­tendance.

“He (Dan Foster) is here be­cause of his resilience,” said Pico. Pico is also a veteran.

A collection of service organi­zations such as the color guard of VFW Bert Fuller Post #9578 and the Kiwanis contributed to the joint purpose celebration.

Nov. 11 was known as Armi­stice Day and was a reference to the armistice agreement that was signed to end the First World War.

Armistice Day was enacted by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 at the end of WWI.

In 1954, after going through more wars, the 83rd Congress inserted the word veterans instead of armistice, hence the day became Veterans Day, not Armistice Day.

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