New memorial for paratroopers dedicated at Miramar National Cemetery
Standing in their green uniforms, their trousers bloused in their boots, the former soldiers quipped that they were used to being surrounded by the enemy because they parachuted behind them.
Now, a special monument to paratroopers is surrounded by a sea of gravestones marking their friends in all the armed services.
More than 70 veterans gathered Saturday morning at Miramar National Cemetery to dedicate a hip-high marble memorial to honor the men and women who have worn silver parachute wings, the uniform badge that signifies someone has passed paratrooper training.
Although dedicated to all the armed forces, nearly all of the vets gathering in the drizzle wore the maroon berets of the Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade or the 82nd Airborne Division.
Nonprofit associations tied to both units raised the funds to pay for the nearly $5,000 memorial and staged Saturday’s solemn ceremony to unveil it.
It took nearly two years, but the paratrooper monument now stands next to five similar memorials erected to honor the sacrifice of Jewish war veterans, Korean War vets, the Navy’s Seabees and Nurse Corps and the Army’s Special Forces.
“We wanted to honor all these guys,” said Jon Hutchens, 76, the project’s director and the president of the Escondido-based chapter of the 173rd Airborne Brigade Association. “If your family wanted to bury your father or brother here, they’re in good company. They’ll never be forgotten.”
Administered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the 313-acre Miramar National Cemetery rubs against the northwest corner of the Marines’ air station. After Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery closed off its grounds to most casket burials in 1966, Miramar was designed to hold the remains of 235,000 San Diego County vets.
Although it’s in a region best known for its large number of Marines and sailors, the cemetery on Saturday drew local paratroopers who had served during every war since the founding of the Army’s airborne school in 1941.
Near the back was John Short, 94, a retired U.S. Postal Service mechanic from Rancho Bernardo. A former smoke jumper in Idaho, he was drafted into the “Thunderbirds” of the Army’s 501st Parachute Test Battalion, a forerunner at Georgia’s Fort Benning for all future sky units.
He stood across from retired Army Staff Sgt. Miguel Alatorre, the keynote speaker who was wounded in Afghanistan, and Alfred “Al” Gonzalez, a paratrooper who fought in Korea and now volunteers his time as an officer in the San Diego chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association.
“We wanted the memorial to be a legacy for the younger people,” said Gonzalez, 86, a former engineer for General Dynamics and other government contractors. “We wanted them to see who we are and what we do, what risks we take to protect the freedoms of our country. By having it here, when they see the memorial we hope it inspires a lot of people who want to serve their country to consider becoming paratroopers.”
Visitors will find the new monument alongside the cemetery’s Memorial Walkway, about two blocks inside the main entrance and just behind the columbarium, where funeral urns are kept. The grounds are open from sunrise to sunset daily.
Military Videos
D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France — at age 96
Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time
Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare
Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions
Stopping Marine hazing
Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing
Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable
Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp
Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal
Get Essential San Diego, weekday mornings
Get top headlines from the Union-Tribune in your inbox weekday mornings, including top news, local, sports, business, entertainment and opinion.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
More from this Author
More in this section
The Marine was with the Marine Light Attack Helicopter Training Squadron 303. Military officials are saying little about the incident, which happened Tuesday evening.
Neither of the two San Diego shipyards large enough to handle the 843-foot vessel has room currently for the amphibious assault ship
Shawn Farrar faces state and federal charges in connection with at least four alleged thefts of government vehicles in San Diego County
Prosecution document details for first time the “issues” that led U.S. Attorney’s Office to vacate trial convictions, seek reductions for other defendants
Cambridge International Systems admitted to acting through its former executive VP and another employee to offer valuable items to a former contracting officer’s representative at Naval Information Warfare Center
Chance Brannon, 24, of San Juan Capistrano and an accomplice threw a Molotov cocktail at the front entrance to the Costa Mesa clinic, scorching a wall
