Veterans' names etched in stone

Nearly a century after James McCloud left Glendale’s Tropico neighborhood for Europe, the city on Monday will honor the World War I veteran by etching his name into marble at the Veterans Memorial outside City Hall.

McCloud is one of 50 veterans to be honored Monday, the largest class to be memorialized in a single year since the five marble walls of names were unveiled in 1997. He is the only veteran of the War to End All Wars whose name will be added this year.

Glendale’s Memorial Day observance will take place at 9:30 a.m. Monday at Broadway and Isabel Street. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) and Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich will be among those reading the names aloud and offering remarks.

Burbank’s ceremony takes place at 11 a.m. at the McCambridge Park War Memorial.

Burbank’s event includes familiar features. The civilian Condor Squadron will perform a flyover of the site, the Burbank Community Band will play patriotic music, and Boy Scouts will lay a rose at the foot of the memorial for each fallen soldier or Marine as the names of veterans are read from the plaque in the park.

The plaque honors those who were lost in the first and second World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and those who have died in the Middle East conflicts after 9/11.

Two new elements include the recognition of those who recently returned and a spoken tribute to the American flag offered by longtime voice actor and Burbank resident Jimmy Weldon. His most famous role may have been his work as Yakky Doodle on the old Yogi Bear cartoons, but he is an experienced motivational speaker who has offered a speech about Old Glory many times before civic and veterans groups.

The 50 new names to be added Monday to the marble walls of the memorial in Glendale on Monday come from research done by Burbank resident Linda Mustion and former Glendale firefighter Don Biggs, both members of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce Patriotism Committee.

Mustion, an amateur genealogist, spent hours at the Southern California Genealogy Society library in Burbank, sifting through military records, old News-Press clippings and other documents. She also used Internet resources and made trips to Forest Lawn Memorial Park to confirm the names and Glendale ties of veterans who had not yet been recognized.

Biggs said confirming solid Glendale ties, one of the criteria for adding a name to the monument, can be difficult.