Memorial Day ceremony in SLO honors fallen military members with music, poetry
The American flag fluttered softly in the breeze outside the San Luis Obispo Veteran’s Hall on Monday, where about 200 people gathered to honor fallen military service members at a Memorial Day Ceremony.
U.S. Army veteran Dave Glidden read the Grand Army of the Republic General Orders to the audience.
“Most people associate Memorial Day with BBQs and family get-togethers and the start of summer. It doesn’t mean any of those things to me,” Glidden told The Tribune after the ceremony. “It’s remembering the people that died and got left behind, and it’s a very painful time.”
He was drafted into the Army when he graduated from San Luis Obispo High School, then he served with the U.S. Army’s Special Forces as a Green Beret during the Vietnam War.
On June 2, 1971, 10 of the 12 men in his unit were killed in an ambush.
“Memorial Day is every day for me because I can’t stop thinking about these guys,” he said. “They were more than best friends, they were my brothers. We went through hell together.”
He often visualizes their faces and recites their names to himself to ensure that he remembers them. If he could speak to his unit again, he said he would ask them, “Have I lived a good life?”
“I’m the only one left out of the 12. I’m it,” he said. “Everybody else is gone. You want to feel that there’s a reason that I made it out. I don’t know what it is.”
Now, he’s dedicated himself to the service of veterans. He is the executive officer of American Legion Post 66, which procures medical supplies for veterans, finds housing for homeless veterans and more.
Post 66, the San Luis Obispo Masons and the Central Coast Veterans Memorial Museum co-organized Monday’s ceremony. At the event, the San Luis Obispo Masons announced a donation of $5,500 to Post 66 to help alleviate food insecurity for local veterans.
During the ceremony, the Central Coast Harmony Chorus sang “The Star Spangled Banner,” and U.S. Navy veteran Bill Fieldhouse gave a heartfelt recitation of the poem, “Ragged Old Flag.”
Local attorney Stewart Jenkins dressed as former President Abraham Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address, and Boy Scout Troop 322 presented a history of the American Flag.
Vietnam War veteran Frank Sinay stood to salute the American flag while the band played the U.S. Air Force theme. He worked on airplanes at Bien Hoa, an air base used by Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine units in Vietnam.
Memorial Day is another opportunity for Sinay to remember his late cousin, Sgt. Pete Segundo, a marine who was killed in action in Vietnam, he said.
Sinay wears a bracelet engraved with his cousin’s name.
“I’m grateful for him, I really miss him, I carry him wherever I go,” Sinray told The Tribune. “He was just a lovable person I’ll never forget.”
This story was originally published May 25, 2026 at 3:22 PM.
