Gilroyans flock to remembrance and hometown parade
Gilroy – While many spent Memorial Day barbecuing or at the beach, thousands also spent the day paying tribute to the men and women who died serving their country. The city’s annual Memorial Day Parade drew one of the best turnouts since it began eight years ago, residents and local officials said.
“This is community. This is what it’s all about,” said Mayor Al Pinheiro, who on Monday was handing out miniature American flags to children and adults along the 10th Street parade route. “The more years we do this, the more you’ll see people. It’s all been very touching, all the way from (Santa Clara County) Supervisor (Don) Gage’s story to Jeramy Ailes. It brings home how we’re all affected by yesterday’s wars and by today’s.”
The name of Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes was repeated by many throughout the day. Ailes, who died last November while fighting insurgents in Fallujah, Iraq, was the first native son to give his life in combat since Vietnam. Supervisor Gage’s father, who died in World War II, was among the city’s first.
Before the horns and sirens of the parade, before the aerial fly-overs, Gilroyans congregated at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park for a more solemn tribute to Ailes, Donald F. Gage Sr., and the dozens of other Gilroyans who have lost their lives in battle.
“Today we are here to memorialize the blood of heroes, both past and present,” said police chaplain Malcolm MacPhail in his opening invocation. “Let us not forget the families that are left with tear-filled eyes as their children went off to war.”
Gage continued his tradition of reading the names of Gilroy servicemen who have died in battle since World War I.
“This is always a sad day for me,” Gage said. “But it’s also a time for us to come together in our pain and our love.”
Councilman Bob Dillon said that while the death of any serviceman or woman is sad, the death of Donald F. Gage was “perhaps a little sadder because he never got to meet his son.”
Donald Frederick Gage Sr. died in an explosion on April 9, 1945 while leading troops across the Rhine River in Germany. The birth certificate of his son, born nine days later, originally read Robert John Gage. Family members held off revealing the tragic news because they did not want to burden Gage’s mother during the last days of her pregnancy. But shortly after giving birth and learning of her husband’s death, she renamed her son after the father he would never meet.
Dillon and other City Council members worked with local developer James Suner to surprise Gage with a street named in honor of the county supervisor’s father. Suner presented him at the ceremony with a sign that read “Gage Court.” The sign will go up a future development off Monterey Road in south Gilroy.
“I totally didn’t expect that,” Gage said. “This is a great honor for my father and me, and I thank you all.”
Gage later drove through the parade in one of several dozen classic cars in the hour-long procession. About 100 different groups entered the parade, according to Councilman Craig Gartman, who helped organize the event.
Returning favorites included fly-overs by World War I bi-planes and the CALSTAR helicopter, as well as siren-blaring police cars and fire engines, many of them tossing candy to kids along the parade path.
One of the liveliest entries was Pro Hip Hop, a group of teens riding a flat-bed truck and stopping occasionally to roll out linoleum and bust out a few breakdance moves. In front of Gilroy High School, a chanting retinue got the crowd clapping as two teens performed back-flips off the truck as part of a quick routine.
But the heart of the parade for many onlookers were the representatives from the local American Legion, Marine Corps, and Veterans of Foreign Wars posts.
“If you watch the older men when the guys come by with the different groups, it’s great to see them,” said Sharon Fuqua, a member of the Volunteers in Policing program. “A lot of people didn’t make it back.”
Parade watchers all seemed to have some connection to the grim reality of war, whether through their own personal experience or that of a family member or friend.
Alan Barnes moved to Gilroy from England in 1966. He still remembers hiding in air-raid shelters as Germans bombed his native country during World War II. He has come to the Memorial Day parade for several years.
“I think it’s very important to remember,” said Barnes, who made a point of joining thousands of other Gilroyans last year who turned out to pay respects to the Ailes family.
Longtime resident Edward P. Sanchez also said he has regularly attended the parade over the years. Sanchez spent 11 months in Korea with the Air Force, and his brothers served during World War II.
“We all came back,” Sanchez said. “Thank God for that.”
A group new to the parade this year honored those less fortunate – prisoners of war and those missing in action.
“Many families can’t close the book,” said Peter Arellano, a former councilman and local doctor who was carrying the POW/MIA colors – a black flag with the silhouette of a soldier and a watchtower. The POW/MIA group was among the largest in this year’s parade and included several dozen people.
Joe Garcia, a Vietnam veteran who started the group, said they are trying to raise awareness of a group of servicemen and women who are often overlooked.
“In any conflict there’s always been POWs and MIAs,” said Garcia, whose family came in from Las Vegas to show their support.
“We can’t forget those whose lives were taken,” said Chris Richards, his brother-in-law.
The POW/MIAs were recognized by parade judges as one of the top parade entries in the category of walking groups. The award for best in parade went to the Gilroy High School Marching Band, while a dozen more awards were handed out to groups in various categories.
But before the celebrations began, Councilman Dillon gave a solemn reminder to people at Gavilan Hills Memorial Park about the price of freedom.
“Reflect,” he said, “that without the holiday we celebrate today, none of the others would be possible.”
