One by one the names were read out loud, a solemn tolling of the fallen.

Memorial Day started early in Balboa Park.

All weekend long, volunteers took turns standing at a lectern on a patio outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center and read the names of San Diegans killed in the Vietnam War or listed as missing in action.

There are more than 450 names on the list, and it took about an hour to read through them all, each name followed by the ringing of a bell. When the readers were finished, they read the names again.


And again.

They read for about eight hours on Saturday, and another ten hours Sunday. They read when passers-by stopped to listen, and they read when no one else was there. It wasn’t about the audience.

Today, at the beginning of a Memorial Day ceremony at the museum, they’ll read the names one more time.

“We do it to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” said Tom Slaughter, a board member for the local chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America.


This isn’t like the well-attended events at Fort Rosecrans and Miramar, the national cemeteries in San Diego that will be decorated today with thousands of American flags and red roses. It isn’t military planes playing overhead at Mt Soledad. There aren’t speeches by admirals or brigadier generals.

It’s people like Albert Banuelos Jr., Thomas Peavy, Gilbert Maestas and Jesus Ortega Jr.

Those were among the names Benjamin Rodriguez read on Saturday, and he felt a personal connection. They all went to Lincoln High in San Diego, and then they all went to Vietnam.

Rodriguez came home. The others did not.


“I say their names and I think of them as high school friends, and I salute them,” he said.

And he tries not to cry.

1 / 16 Vietnam veteran Jack Kline was one of many veterans of the war who took turns and read the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. The names are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 2 / 16 Vietnam War veterans, Paul Fusco, Phil Armitage and Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez, salute as the American flag is at half-staff during the reading of the names of the 450 plus San Deigns killed or are listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War, at a Memorial Day weekend observance outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park by veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 3 / 16 Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War salutes as the name of his friend who he went to Lincoln High School with, Jesus Ortega Jr.,was read during a Memorial Day weekend observance at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. Vietnam veterans gathered at the museum and took turns reading continuously the 450 plus names of the San Diegans who were killed or are listed as missing in action for about eight hours Saturday and will again on Sunday for about ten hours. The names of his other three high school friends who were killed during the war, Thomas Peavy, Albert Banuelos Jr., and Gilbert Maestas are inscribed on other plaques at the San Diego Peace Memorial. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 4 / 16 Vietnam War Army veteran Cleveland Norton Jr. was one of the veterans who rang a bell made from an artillery shell each time the name of one of the more than 450 San Deigns killed or are listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War was read at a Memorial Day weekend observance Saturday outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. The names were read continuously by fellow Vietnam veterans for about eight hours and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 5 / 16 Vietnam War Army veteran Bill France was one of the veterans who rang a bell each time the name of one of the 450 plus San Deigns killed or are listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War was read at a Memorial Day weekend observance outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. The names were read continuously by fellow Vietnam veterans for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 6 / 16 Vietnam veterans took turns reading the names of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action, continuously for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday during a Memorial Day weekend observance outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial where the names are inscribed on plaques attached to five monuments. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 7 / 16 Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War lost four friends he went to Lincoln High School with during the war. Every year he and other Vietnam veterans honor them on Memorial Day weekend by taking turns and reading their names and the names of the more than 450 San Diegans who were killed or are listed as missing in action, continuously for about eight hours at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park where the names are inscribed on plaques Saturday, and for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 8 / 16 Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War places his hands on one of the plaques at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park with the names of two of his four Lincoln High School friends, Albert Banuelos Jr., and Gilbert Maestas that went to Vietnam and were killed in combat. Other plaques have the names Thomas Peavy and Jesse Ortega Jr., his two other high school fiends that died in the war. Rodriquez and other Vietnam veterans gathered at the museum and took turns reading continuously the 450 plus names of the San Diegans who were killed or are listed as missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance and will do so again for about 10 hours Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 9 / 16 Vietnam veteran Francisco Flores was one of many veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. The names are to be read for about 10 hours Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 10 / 16 Vietnam War Navy veteran Leo Enrile listens as the 450 plus San Deigns killed or are listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War were read at a Memorial Day weekend observance outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park. The names were read continuously by fellow Vietnam veterans for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 11 / 16 Vietnam veteran Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez was one of many veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 12 / 16 Vietnam War veteran Chuck Mowery was one of the veterans who rang a bell made from an artillery shell each time the name of one of the more than 450 San Deigns killed or are listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War was read at a Memorial Day weekend observance outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park Saturday. The names were read continuously by fellow Vietnam veterans for about eight hours and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 13 / 16 Vietnam veteran Francisco Flores was one of many veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. The names are to be read for about 10 hours Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 14 / 16 Vietnam veteran Francisco Flores was one of many veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. The names are to be read for about 10 hours Sunday. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 15 / 16 Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez, an Army veteran of the Vietnam War places a hand on one of the plaques at the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park with the name of one of his four Lincoln High School friends, Jesus Ortega Jr., who was killed in action in Vietnam. On other plaques are the names of his three other friends who were killed during the war, Albert Banuelos Jr., Gilbert Maestas and Thomas Peavy. Rodriquez and other Vietnam veterans gathered at the museum and took turns reading continuously the 450 plus names of the San Diegans who were killed or are listed as missing in action for about eight hours Saturday during a Memorial Day weekend observance and will do so again on Sunday for about 10 hours. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune) 16 / 16 Vietnam veteran Benjamin “Benny” Rodriguez was one of many veterans of the war who took turns reading the names continuously of the more than 450 San Deigns who died or are missing in action for about eight hours Saturday and are to be read for about 10 hours on Sunday during a Memorial Day weekend observance. The names were read outside the Veterans Museum and Memorial Center in Balboa Park near the San Diego Peace Memorial, where the names are inscribed on plaques, attached to five monuments. (Howard Lipin / The San Diego-Union-Tribune)

A peace memorial

The readings have been going on for more than 30 years.


In 1969, a handful of volunteers worked with the local Roman Catholic Diocese to build what was called the San Diego Peace Memorial on church property in Old Town.

Funded through private donations, it was erected in response to the protests against the Vietnam War that were erupting across the country. It featured two concrete monuments topped with plaques containing the names of San Diego County’s casualties.

The list grew as the war continued — it was still more than five years from ending — and two more plaque-topped monuments were added in 1974.

Like the war itself, the memorial was controversial. Some misunderstood its purpose, saw it as a glorification of combat. American flags were burned at the site, rotten eggs thrown at the markers.


After the military conflict ended, the memorial took on a sacred air, and veterans saw it as a place of reconciliation. There was pride in the fact that it was one of the first Vietnam memorials in the nation, pre-dating the famous one in Washington D.C., the Wall, by more than a decade.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, volunteers started gathering there on Memorial Day weekends and reading the names out loud for 48 straight hours.

It made for a sometimes-odd juxtaposition at the corner of San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street, somber reflection bumping up against camera-toting tourists wandering by during the day and boozy revelers carrying on from nearby bars at night.

In 1994, the diocese sold the property. The memorial was moved to its present spot, outside the Veterans Museum in Balboa Park.


Some people worried that moving the memorial would rob it of its emotional power, and that with fewer visitors walking by it every day, those honored on its plaques might soon be forgotten.

As this weekend showed, that hasn’t happened.

‘For love of country’

Saturday’s readers were from the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 472, and Sunday’s were from Veterans Village of San Diego.

They worked in two-hour blocks, four readers per hour. After each name was read, a bell was rung — once for those killed in action, twice for those missing.


There are now five monuments topped by plaques. Each also bears a quote from the Bible, John 15:13: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

The readers never know how many people might be listening, or who they might be. Sometimes, Rodriguez said, it’s survivors of the local men killed in the war. He’s met relatives of his high school classmates that way.

Sometimes it’s survivors from other parts of America. On occasion they walk up and ask to say out loud the names of their loved ones, too, even though they weren’t from San Diego.

Such requests are always honored. “It’s an emotional weekend,” Slaughter said.


Today figures to be more of the same, at the museum and elsewhere. Memorial Day events are planned all over San Diego County, 150 years after the nation’s first official commemoration of those killed in combat.

On May 30, 1868, government leaders gathered at Arlington National Cemetery, where 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers were buried, and heard future President James Garfield say, “For love of country they accepted death, and thus resolved all doubts, and made immortal their patriotism and their virtue.”

It’s a sentiment that echoes still, in places where the names of the fallen are read out loud, one by one, again and again.


john.wilkens@sduniontribune.com