Memorial Day brings veterans’ reflections, visit of historical Naval ship

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John Paul Jones is the third Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer and the first ship of its class homeported on the West Coast. The ship’s mission is to conduct prompt and sustained operations at sea in support of U.S. national interests. The ship is named in honor of Naval hero John Paul Jones. It will anchor in full view off the Malibu Pier the weekend of June 10-12.

One local veteran chooses to honor his fallen compatriots. Another is bringing attention to the country’s current guard of soldiers. And a skilled filmmaker is capturing both in a delicate balance of paying tribute to all of the U.S. military-both living and dead.

By Paul Sisolak / Special to The Malibu Times

Through a book, a film and a visit from an historical sea vessel, Memorial Day is observed this weekend, during which time a pair of local ex-military, along with an award-winning documentarian, will participate in a series of projects in which three different, yet united viewpoints on the national holiday are examined.

Longtime Malibu resident Leon Cooper is issuing a novel, “Remembering Private Lamb,” inspired by Cooper’s participation in the November 1943 Tarawa offensive against Japanese forces, his first of six tours of duty in World War II as a Navy landing craft officer. The USS Liscome Bay was sunk off the shore, and more than 6,000 men were killed in less than 72 hours. One thousand were American troops.

It’s nearly 70 years later, and Cooper has never forgotten that he got the chance to live out the rest of his life when many of his peers never made it home. “Private Lamb,” he said, is based on a composite of his friends who died at Tawara.

“The story is based more on what I imagined, had this kid grown up and been a mature man and not been cut off at the prime of his life,” Cooper said.

“Private Lamb,” with a tentative June publishing date, is Cooper’s own way of memorializing not just the soldiers who have been killed in battle, but also those whose bodies were never recovered.

“I have jaded feelings about all these celebrations for our boys,” he said. “All I think about are the thousands of guys who lie where they fell. All I can do is reflect upon hypocrisy, everyone remembering our brave boys and girls, but there are so many who are missing. That’s really the shame of America, that we’ve allowed the government to forget about the people who have been killed in the primes of their lives. We’re celebrating their deaths, and not their lives.”

Cooper took up the cause of recovery when he revisited Tawara three years ago with area filmmaker Steven Barber. Barber, who put “Return to Tawara” to film after the experience, is following up the documentary with “Until They Are Home.”

Barber’s new film, which is set for a late-year release, follows through on Cooper’s aim to memorialize missing and presumed dead soldiers. For the movie, the director journeyed back to Asia for an intensive, 48-day search looking for POWs. Barber said excavation crews unearthed the bodies of nine Japanese and two U.S. Marines. They were brought home with full military honors.

“Most people don’t have a clue that 78,000 guys never came home,” Barber said. However, Barber likens the number of casualties to millions-family members who never received closure are casualties of war themselves, he said.

While Cooper and Barber keep a light burning for the soldiers killed in war, Malibu resident John Payne and the Malibu Navy League are working to memorialize today’s Armed Forces. The league will honor them next month with the arrival of the USS John Paul Jones to Malibu, where the 505-foot-long battleship will anchor near the city’s pier for three days.

The visit by the Naval destroyer from June 10 to 12 will bring with it 270 active duty sailors, 210 men and 60 women, and will remain on active duty at all times. Its motto: “In Harm’s Way.” “It will be manned and ready even though it’s anchored,” Payne said.

Due to the Navy’s recent participation in the Pakistani attack and killing of 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, national security has been increased, and the ship hasn’t been authorized for public tours during that weekend. However, Malibu residents will still have a chance to meet with the ship’s command, its sailors, and a host of other local celebrities and officials taking part in the Malibu Navy Days weekend during the ship’s visit.

Navy League President Payne, himself a retired Naval Reserve captain, said it was luck to secure the ship’s visit to Malibu, a collaborative effort between the league, Pepperdine University, the Malibu Chamber of Commerce and the U.S. Navy’s 3rd fleet in San Diego.

“If the ship had not wanted to do this, it wouldn’t have been approved higher,” Payne said. “We’re overwhelmed and amazed, astonished, that a Navy ship, a guided missile destroyer, would even agree to come to Malibu to make a port visit. It’s unique, it’s historical and we don’t know if it’ll happen again.”

That it follows Memorial Day is appropriate because it acknowledges that one must move on and persevere in future generations even when others have died fighting for a cause.

“Memorial Day has a sadness to it because we’re talking about those who gave the ultimate,” Payne said. “We honor those people the best we can, and the ship coming here a week later is in memory of those who have given their lives. I think it’s fitting.”

More information on “Malibu Navy Days” can be obtained online at www.MalibuNavyLeague.org