Arcadia's 15th Annual Memorial Day Event (Photos)

Pat Hofferbert flew planes during World War II, ferrying wounded troops out of Saipan on his four-engine, C-54 transport. He was a pilot in the Army Air Corp whose missions took him to places like Shanghai, Tokyo, Guam, along with "several islands nobody's heard of" like Christmas Island and Palmyra.

Some of his memories are dark, such as the time such he flew low over Hiroshima to see what was left following the detonation of a nuclear bomb. He saw the pools and tile from Japanese bath houses still intact from being below ground, yet laid bare for all to see since mostly everything above ground was eradicated. There was also a stop in Atsugi, Japan where the Japanese took their gravely wounded soldiers, "guys who they knew probably werent' going to make it," to an empty pit and burned them alive.

"I didn't see that," he said. "But I could hear it. We could hear the screams."

Other memories are pleasant, like the time he and his brothers in the military were warmly invited to share in a massive Thanksgiving dinner in the Philippines. 

And most recently, he was on a mission of his own -- for the longest time, he said, he couldn't find a hat that bore the words "World War II Veteran" on it.

"I'm 88, and there aren't a lot of World War II guys left ... I've gone into Army/Navy stores, places all over Orange County trying to find it and nobody seemed to have it. I should have gone online."

He found plenty of hats and those who earned the right to wear them at Arcadia's 15th annual celebration of veterans for Memorial Day, entitled "Remembering Our Veterans and Their Families: Past, Present and Future."

The event drew hundreds of veterans and their loved ones along with guests such as Sheriff Lee Baca, County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and Arcadia Mayor Robert Harbicht. There was live music and various booths offering information on branches of the military, departments and entities within Los Angeles County.

And of course, there were people like Oxnard's Linda Phelps-Humphrey, a former Army sharpshooter who also drove military-grade Humvees in the Kuwaiti desert. She was peering through the sights of a side-mounted machine gun on a exhibition Humvee, one of many military displays at the park.

"They actually go pretty fast," she said. "But they are really all-terrain vehicles , so it does them no justice when you're just driving them on the street."

Daniel Rodriguez, 64, was taking everything in as he walked. He's a Vietnam veteran who fought with the Marines at Khe Sanh, a battle that has been well-chronicles in both documentaries and popular culture.

"Not too many guys walked out of there," he said. "There was a lot of camaraderie with the people you're with, especially in the foxholes. There the only ones you can depend on."

But like Hofferbert and other veterans, there are good stories to tell as well. For Rodriguez, it was about finding ways to have fun.

"On Saturday nights, we didn't have much entertainment. We just had one little radio in our bunker," he said. "So on Saturday nights, we'd all go around and the sergeant would let us listen to it, and it was the Grand Ole Opry. Which is really weird. I was never into country western, but that's all they played, and now ... now I kinda like it."

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