Survivors Remember the Fallen : Ceremonies: Four new names are inscribed on Oxnard’s memorial as the area observes Veterans Day.

Ray Hanson stared deeply at the black granite pyramid before the name on the bottom pushed him away.

The fresh etching, whiter and brighter than the 43 other names carved into the smooth black surface of the Oxnard Veterans Memorial, brought back awful memories. The name belonged to his helicopter-pilot son who was shot down over Laos in 1967 and declared a casualty of war six years later.

And now that the name had been chiseled into the veterans memorial--Stephen Paul Hanson, USMC--those memories brought tears to his eyes.

“You try to tuck it away in the back of your mind, but it’s always there,” the 83-year-old Oxnard resident said. “Things like this bring it out.”

Four names were added to the memorial Wednesday during a Veterans Day ceremony at Oxnard’s Plaza Park: Stephen Paul Hanson, Jack Adamson, Lazaro Martinez and Manuel D. Martinez.

The memorial--dedicated a year ago by a committee of area veterans and city officials--is a circle of five pyramids honoring 136 hometown soldiers who died in conflicts ranging from World War I to the Persian Gulf War.

The names added Wednesday came to the committee’s attention after last year’s dedication. More names will be added as they surface, committee members said.

“We come together in prayer,” Navy chaplain Richard D. Ross Jr. told a gathering of about 100 people on Wednesday, “as a community wounded by those wars.”

Throughout Ventura County, veterans and loved ones gathered to commemorate the day set aside to remember those who have fought and died in battle.

Near Simi Valley, almost 100 military veterans were granted free entry to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, where photographs and military uniforms of Presidents from Truman to Bush were on display.

And in Moorpark, about 60 people gathered at the city’s veterans memorial at Moorpark and Los Angeles avenues for a ceremony organized by American Legion Post 502.

To the sounds of passing diesel engines and screeching brakes, the post’s ladies auxiliary laid a wreath on the memorial, which sits at the foot of a flag post. The wreath was donated by Moorpark’s Moose Lodge 431.

Four members of a Marine Corps color guard fired a salute as another Marine played taps.

After the 30-minute ceremony, American Legion Post member John Frake said he was happy to see the handful of young people in attendance.

“As long as we can remind the kids and the young people of what went on, that’s the most important thing,” Frake said. “The older ones, we know what it’s about.”

The Oxnard ceremony was kicked off by a regimental combat team marching in lock-step and carrying the American flag. A bearded man, wearing a red beret and combat fatigues, broke from the procession to unfurl a black and white flag.

“POW-MIA,” the flag read, “You Are Not Forgotten.”

A woman and a little girl dropped red carnations at the base of the pyramid honoring those who died in Vietnam. A family delivered a bouquet of flowers to the same pyramid, tagged with a copy of a newspaper story.

“To Dad With Love From Your Sons,” it said at the bottom of the story about the death of 20-year-old David Balades, killed when his Marine helicopter was blown out of the sky over Vietnam.

That’s also the way Stephen Hanson died.

The helicopter pilot was shot down on June 3, 1967, after going into Laos to pick up special forces. His wife, Carole Hanson Hickerson, didn’t know for six years whether the Santa Clara High School graduate was dead or alive.

“Not knowing didn’t mean he was dead,” said the Camarillo woman, who has remarried and attended Wednesday’s ceremony with her husband, Jim.

Stephen Hanson never met his son Todd, who was born two weeks after he left for Vietnam. Todd Hanson is a Navy pilot based in Virginia.

“I think it will always be a very sad thing for me and for those of us who have been so closely involved,” Hickerson said of the Veterans Day ceremonies. “You want people to understand why they have the day off.”