IGO – With tears welling in her eyes, Pennie Lamphere of Anderson knelt Wednesday at the grave of her 71-year-old father, Paul Torve Waldon, who died in November 2007 and was buried at Northern California Veterans Cemetery.
Lamphere and her mother, Beverly Waldon, also of Anderson, paid their respects to Paul Waldon as a crowd estimated at about 1,000 people gathered a short distance away to celebrate veterans and Veterans Day.
Tech. Sgt. Waldon served in the U.S. Air Force for 20 years and was a Korean War veteran who also served during the Vietnam War era, his widow said.
They were married for 53 “beautiful” years, Beverly Waldon said.
Photo by Nathan Morgan
Tehama County Young Marines Lance Cpl. Andrew Bell, 9, left, Pvt. Cameron Douglas, 11, and Sgt. Mikayla Erickson, 13, salute during the presentation of colors Wednesday at Northern California Veterans Cemetery.
“He was the best husband in the world,” said Waldon as she choked back tears.
She said she and her husband were extremely proud of his military service.
“I’m all Air Force,” she acknowledged before she and her daughter walked slowly to the Veterans Day ceremony and past the graves of other veterans buried at the cemetery.
Those buried there include 25-year-old Joshua Munns of Anderson, whose body was found last year in Iraq after he and four others had been abducted in late 2006 and subsequently murdered by their kidnappers.
Waldon said that Munns, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001 to 2005 and later worked as a security contractor in Kuwait, was once her neighbor.
“It’s hard to believe that they are both (Munns and her husband) here together,” she said sadly.
Jack Kirwan, deputy secretary for administration of the state Department of Veterans Affairs, who was the keynote speaker during the Veterans Day ceremony, praised veterans for their selfless service to their country and said the nation has always been able to rely on veterans – and their courage – to preserve its freedom.
“We must never forget them,” he said.
Photo by Nathan Morgan
Mary Childress and her son, Joe, 9, both of Redding, pause to remember Mary’s dad, Wes Estill, Wednesday during the Veterans Day ceremony at Northern California Veterans Cemetery in Igo. “This is my first Veterans Day without my dad,” Childress said. Estill served in the South Pacific during World War II with the U.S. Navy.
