Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/veterans-day-1/)
Voice of OC has published a series in our opinion section of some of Orange County’s most notable veterans who received the highest honors the U.S. military bestows on soldiers for their heroic actions in combat. Plaques honoring these individuals are showcased at Heroes Hall at the Orange County Fairgrounds.
As we come out of the election season, and go into another month of tight, tense counts at the local registrar of voters office, Veterans Day offers a chance to stop and reflect on our freedoms as well as those who have sacrificed to ensure our way of life. Today, Orange County’s state fairgrounds in Costa Mesa hosts the annual commemoration where people can visit the Hero’s Hall museum as well as the walk of honor featuring plaques that tell the stories of more than three-dozen war heroes from Orange County.
Kazuo Masuda was an Orange County resident who received posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945. Masuda was a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and died while defending his men during an escape while fighting the enemy alone. His family was taken from Orange County and placed in a Japanese Interment Camp during the war. But this horrible injustice did not deter him from fighting for his country so heroically.
After decades of rebuffs by political leaders, Orange County’s military veterans will celebrate the opening of their own museum at the county fairgrounds on Veterans Day.
From now until Veterans Day, Voice of OC will publish a special series in our opinion section that showcases the heroic actions of Orange County veterans who received the highest honors bestowed upon soldiers who served in combat.
Gary Colletti left Vietnam in 1965, but the war hasn’t left him. He now helps fellow vets receive the benefits they have coming to them.
One was among the first to complete a mission behind enemy lines in North Korea. The other served stateside, helping amputees put their lives back together.
After decades of frustration, veterans are optimistic that with help from organized labor a countywide memorial and museum will be built.
Daniel Foster, who returned a hero after tours in Iraq and
Afghanistan, is facing foreclosure because the Department of
Veterans Affairs hasn’t approved his application for benefits.