WILDOMAR: Dedication ceremony draws crowd, strong emotions

Elsinore High School veterans honored with campus memorial

By JENNIFER KABBANY - For The Californian | Friday, July 4, 2008 10:38 PM PDT ∞

WILDOMAR ---- For 115 years, Elsinore High School has served as the center of learning for tens of thousands of students, with teachers imparting lessons inside classroom walls.

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Now, an important lesson has been emblazoned on a wall in front of the campus for students to take in: "Lest We Forget, Freedom Is Not Free." That message is one part of a large veterans memorial dedicated Friday at the school.

Next to the phrase is a list of names of more than 300 students and staff, past and present, who served in the military during a conflict and were killed in action or honorably discharged.

Among the names is U.S. Army Pfc. Daniel Parker, who graduated in 2002 and died in Iraq the following year. The Parker family was among the 200 people who attended the ceremony.

Parker's father, Billy, said the memorial will remind future Elsinore High students about the sacrifices pupils who came before them made.

Large pictures of Parker, as well as two other recent Elsinore High graduates killed in Iraq, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Hunt and Army Sgt. Nathan Bouchard, served as powerful backdrops throughout the ceremony.

"Dan and Justin and Nathan are still a part of this school and local community," Billy Parker said. "They walked these halls, and a part of them is still here. The kids who come here and never knew these three will know their history (through the memorial)."

The memorial consists of a garden leading up to a wall listing the names of those who served, and is reminiscent of the style of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Elsinore's "wall" is made of granite, and was placed behind the school's concrete marquee, located in the center of a roundabout at the front of the school.

While some parts of the wall are complete, the list of names is still under construction and is expected to be completed later this month. In its place, a white banner listing the hundreds of students and employees who have served in every conflict since World War I hung.

Families were asked to sign the concrete marquee prior to the wall's installation as a way of christening and immortalizing the memorial.

Prior to the memorial's installation, the center of the roundabout was filled with weeds and dying grass and bushes. Now it boasts blooming red roses, palm trees, decorative bark and rocks, and a stone pathway leading to the wall of names.

"This is quite a miracle," Stan Crippen said at the start of the ceremony.

Crippen, a longtime teacher at the school, worked with his son, Cody, to spearhead the effort to create the memorial. The undertaking took five years of brainstorming, planning, fundraising and hard work, Stan Crippen said.

"This truly has been a community project," he said, citing the dozens of local businesses and groups, as well as alumni, who contributed to the effort.

About $10,000 in cash, in-kind donations, and volunteer work has been donated to complete the project, he said.

"It's very special," Principal Jon Hurst, an Army veteran who served during the Cold War, said during the ceremony. "It's very nice to be recognized this way."

As the event progressed, veterans were asked to stand and be recognized, and were given standing ovations.

Among them was Daniel Neilsen, a 2003 graduate of Elsinore High and former Marine who served in Iraq twice. He said he was touched by the ceremony.

"It means a lot," said Neilsen, 23. "It feels good that the community is backing us."

Petty Officer First Class Christopher Hogancamp, a 1991 Elsinore High graduate serving in the Navy, said the memorial was a poignant thing for local veterans, especially those who served during the Vietnam War.

"(The Crippens revived) something that for a long time was lost, and that's patriotism for the military," said Hogancamp, 36, who donned his dress uniform for the ceremony. "You might not agree with the politics of a war, but you can still care for the soldiers and sailors."

For U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Raymond de la Cruz, 22, a 2003 graduate of Elsinore High, the ceremony reminded him of friends he's lost, such as Parker, and friends still serving in Iraq.

"I think about the guys out there," de la Cruz said.

A scrapbook filled with pictures and stories of the hundreds of veterans is being compiled, and will be placed in the front office for people to learn more about the men and women behind the names engraved on the memorial, Stan Crippen said.

As the years progress, more names will be added to the list, he said.

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