Veterans Day event in Cambria spans generations

Speakers from two generations, separated by nearly eight decades, took the stage at the Veterans Memorial Building in Cambria on Friday, Nov. 11, to help the community celebrate Veterans Day.

Les Lindow, 94, who served aboard the USS Maryland, recalled the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. And 15-year-old Cambria filmmaker Carlos Plummer told the audience what has inspired him and brother Kyle to make a series of documentaries about the nation’s veterans.

A full house of veterans, their families and community members attended the 80-minute program, which was punctuated at several points by the phrase “Thank you for your service.”

Lindow, a baker 1st class aboard the Maryland remembered what he was doing when the Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in a surprise attack that took place 75 years ago this December.

“We were on our way to Waikiki (Beach),” he said. “We were out on the quarterdeck, ready to go ashore. I seen this airplane go over with a great big red ball inside it.”

The Maryland was one of the main Japanese targets, he recalled.

“We were the best thing in the fleet at the time,” he said. “They tied the (USS) Oklahoma up alongside of us, or I probably wouldn’t be here.

“We had one torpedo in the bow and one bow in the bow which killed our chief painter,” Lindow remembered. “Another bomb went off on the (USS) Tennessee and killed two people with the shrapnel … We were lucky: We only had three people lost that day.”

After the war, Lindow said he started his own automotive business and, in 1948, got his commercial pilot’s license. He said he’d owned seven airplanes and flown Doctors Without Borders for 20 years.

Lindow said he’d been back to Hawaii a couple of times since the 1941 attack, and he’ll be flying there this year for a gathering of Pearl Harbor survivors.

Carlos Plummer, who spoke after Lindow left the stage, told the audience how he and his brother had been inspired by veterans to tell their stories in such documentary films as “Tour of Honor” and “Korea Remembered.” This year’s 17-minute short, “The Nine Lives of Harald Bauer,” an Atascadero resident who crashed while flying for the Luftwaffe during World War II, was taken in by U.S. operatives and later flew for the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

“I feel that by making these documentaries, people can understand that there’s a lot more to history than what we read in textbooks,” Carlos, a high school sophomore, said. “All of their stories are important. No story is too small to tell: Every veteran’s story deserves to be told.

“Why would I want to make a documentary to honor veterans? It’s how I can repay and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and that’s my definition of patriotism.”

Also at the ceremony:

▪  American Legion Post 432 1st Vice Cmdr. Greg Sanders presented Commander Cmdr. Dave Ehlers — the emcee for Friday’s event — with the Don Bowman Patriot of the Year Award.

▪  Jay Burbank presented Ron Waltman with a certificate showing that Waltman’s 48-star flag, which he donated to the Legion a decade ago for display at public events and on Burbank’s Iwo Jima sculpture, had flown over Fort McHenry. The fort was at the center for the Battle of Baltimore in 1814, which served as the inspiration for Francis Scott Key’s “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (At the beginning of the ceremony, Brian Griffin had read an account of how Key came to write what would become the national anthem.)

▪  Coast Union High School student Michelle Acosta read the poem “Veterans Day.”

▪  Sanders presented Korean War veterans with copies of a book on the Korean War.

▪  Waltman announced that the legion is selling holiday wreaths to lay at the gravesites of fallen service members across the country. He said Cambria, Santa Rosa, Cayucos-Morro Bay and Los Osos were among the cemeteries participating. Last year, he said, more than 1 million wreaths were laid nationwide, including 240,000 at every gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery.

The wreaths are priced at $15 apiece. For information, contact Waltman at 805-909-2030 or by email at legionpost432@charter.net.

This story was originally published November 11, 2016 at 3:26 PM with the headline "Veterans Day event in Cambria spans generations."