San Diegans and military personnel today will pay tribute to Americans killed in U.S. wars during a Memorial Day ceremony that has been held at Fort Rosecrans for more than 100 years.
Navy Rear Adm.William Douglas French will be the keynote speaker at the 10 a.m. ceremony among the headstones dotting the bluffs of Point Loma. The ceremony will be the 111th at the cemetery, where U.S. military veterans have been buried since 1846, though it is no longer open to new burials.
Still in December, the military made room for the body of San Diegan Kenneth Necochea Jr., a 21-year-old Army corporal killed in a suicide car-bombing in Afghanistan last year.
The Navy Band will perform at the ceremony, which is expected to draw thousands.
Aboard the USS Midway about 11:40 a.m., San Diego County Supervisor Bill Horn will speak at a Memorial Day ceremony that will include aircraft displays.
The names of military personnel killed in the past month will be read, as will those San Diegans, during the ceremony, which will include a 21-gun salute.
More than 640 Southern Californians have been killed in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
At Balboa Park at 7:30 a.m., remembrance is scheduled with several speakers.
At 10 a.m. in Kensington, the 29th annual "Holiday at Home'' Memorial Day parade is scheduled to begin on Marlborough Avenue, featuring high school marching bands and a relay race. The parade route is between Adams Avenue and Palisades Street.
Also at 10 a.m. in Oceanside, the Veteran's Association of North County will host a Memorial Day ceremony in Oceanside at the VANC Resource Center, 1617 Mission Ave.
In Rancho Bernardo at 10:15 a.m., the Ramona Town Hall Brass Band and the Rancho Bernardo High School Madrigals will perform patriotic songs at Webb Park on Avena Drive near Bernardo Center Drive.
At Greenwood Memorial Park at 1:30 p.m., a Memorial Day service will be held by American Legion San Diego Post 6. A spaghetti dinner will follow.
On Mount Soledad, a ceremony honoring Marine Maj. Gregory "Pappy'' Boyington is set for 2 p.m. at the veterans memorial.
