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C ALI FORN IA’S OLDE ST NE W SPAPER
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VOLUME 173 • ISSUE 58 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2024
Tradition continues as county mourns and remembers John Poimiroo
Special to the Mountain Democrat
esidents of Gold Country Senior Living in Placerville curiously examined a display showcasing a recent adventure of a local veteran, resembling something of a museum exhibit complete with a collection of photos and other memorabilia. “I said, ‘God, a coward dies 1,000 On a couch nearby, veteran Therese deaths but the brave only die Gilder and her once. I’m going to throw myself friend Kathy Hatten out no matter what and not be recollected their time in Washington, D.C., humiliated and thrown out.’” where they spent — Therese Gilder on her jump school experience three days together observing some of the nation’s greatest military exhibits, including the Korean, Vietnam and World War II memorials. Gilder, 91, sports her U.S. Paratrooper hat decorated with memorial pins and proudly holds a certificate honoring her service in the military, which she was presented with during the trip. The once-in-a-lifetime experience was made possible for the veteran through the Honor Flight Network, which invited
It began in Waterloo, N.Y., on May 5, 1866, as Decoration Day, a day on which its citizens decorated the graves of soldiers with flags and flowers while the town was dressed in mourning black, flags flown at half-staff and businesses closed. That tradition, based on similar remembrances informally practiced in the South, was repeated the following year and continued until Waterloo joined other communities that had followed Waterloo’s lead by observing Decoration Day at the end of May. In 1968 President Lyndon Johnson designated the official birthplace of Memorial Day as Waterloo, N.Y. Each year on the fourth Monday in May, the nation gathers on Memorial Day to mourn and remember its war dead, the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who died in service to their country. The commemoration is particularly notable here, where on Monday, May 27, up to 2,000 county residents will gather at 11 a.m. at the El Dorado County Veterans Monument in Placerville, 300 Fair Lane, to honor and remember those who lost their lives serving the cause of freedom. The Memorial Day ceremonies, conducted by the El Dorado County Veterans Alliance, have been acclaimed as among the best, largest, militarily correct and most respectful of any in California. They include a fly-over and missing man formation by a squadron of World War II warbirds led by
■ See THERESE GILDER, page A11
■ See MEMORIAL DAY, page A8
Courtesy photos
Placerville resident and veteran Therese Gilder, seated right, got the opportunity to be part of a group that presented a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during her recent Honor Flight experience.
Inspiration takes flight ■ Local veteran receives once-in-a-lifetime trip Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
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Therese Gilder became a paratrooper at 47, before the military instituted age restrictions.
Tahoe local chosen for D-Day Memorial Flight ■ Holocaust
a ceremony on June 6 in the Normandy American Cemetery. “Somehow we (me and my wife, Patricia) have been chosen to Anna Kristina join this group of 69 Moseidjord other people. I am so Tahoe Daily Tribune excited that we have the opportunity to get a SOUTH LAKE deeper understanding TAHOE — American of what happened on Airlines is honoring those beaches,” Malmed South Lake Tahoe shared. local and Holocaust Leon Malmed emigrated to Born in France in survivor Leon the U.S. in 1964, living many 1937, Leon Malmed is Malmed with a years in Tahoe. a longtime South Lake trip to France local, author, speaker in commemoration of the 80th and cycling world champion. anniversary of D-Day. Malmed is Malmed’s book “We Survived … At one of 70 veterans on the trip, which last, I speak,” recounts his experience will begin with a parade send-off in as a child in France during World Dallas before a flight to Paris and War II. After his parents were taken then Normandy. from their apartment by Nazi foot According to American Airlines, soldiers, Malmed and his sister “The trip will include visits to key were hidden by their downstairs historical sites, concerts and special neighbors. It was not until the war ceremonies to honor the courage and was over that they learned their sacrifice of all who served during World War II.” It will culminate in ■ See LEON MALMED, page A9
survivor headed to Normandy
Courtesy photo
Holocaust survivor Leon Malmed was hidden with his sister in France during World War II. Their parents died in Auschwitz.