Veterans Day

Valena Sahagum holds daughter Sierra as her father Eddie Basham cheers on the veterans at the San Fernando Valley parade.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Archuro Chacon holds the nation’s flag as he joins U.S. veterans at the San Fernando Valley parade.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

Veterans of different wars share a ride on a truck during the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

World War II veteran Ben Fortunato rides in a truck during the San Fernando Valley Veterans Day Parade.  (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

A Veterans Day display at the Arlington West memorial near the Santa Monica Pier notes the U.S. military toll in the Iraq war.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

In Santa Monica, April White of Sherman Oaks looks at the photos of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan as people visit the Arlington West memorial.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

From left, Marines Mario Chan, Ben Valdez and Alfredo Hernandez, all 21, visit the cross of their slain friend and fellow Marine Raymond Romero at Arlington West. The four were childhood friends and residents of Huntington Park. Romero was killed Aug. 22, 2005, in Iraq.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

A note and flower were left on this cross at the Arlington West memorial in Santa Monica.  (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

Members of Troy High’s Junior ROTC carry the flags of the 50 states during Fullerton’s 21st annual Veterans Day observance and parade.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

From left, veterans Hal Dixon, Bob Henson and Don Satterberg salute during the parade in Fullerton.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Serena Pacheco holds the flag while her father, Army veteran Frank Pacheco, salutes during the Fullerton parade.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Crowds line up to watch the Fullerton parade participants.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Children from the First Christian preschool in Fullerton attend the parade.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Lee Cult and Earnest Oliver walk the parade route with fellow vets in Fullerton.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Farahad Ghamsari of the Troy High School Junior ROTC carries the flag during the parade in Fullerton.  (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

At Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, flag bearers form a procession during Veterans Day ceremonies. This marks the 55th anniversary of the holiday, which began as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I.  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

Veterans gather at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery during a solemn ceremony Tuesday.  (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

Vice President Cheney addresses the crowd at the Virginia cemetery.  (Win McNamee / Getty Images)

U.S. Army Air Corps and Air Force veteran Bob Storm was among those attending ceremonies at the Arkansas state Capitol building in Little Rock.  (Danny Johnston / Associated Press)

President-elect Barack Obama and Tammy Duckworth, Iraq war veteran and Illinois state director of veterans affairs, visit the Bronze Soldiers Memorial in Chicago.  (Stan Honda AFP / Getty Images)

Flowers are placed at flag-decorated graves on Veterans Day at the Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen, N.H.  (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Fresh-cut flowers were placed by a widow on the Boscawen, N.H., gravesite of her husband, a World War II veteran.  (Jim Cole / Associated Press)

Jose Cabrera embraces fellow Vietnam veteran Luke Kircher at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Philadelphia.  (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

President Bush, with members of the U.S. military, talks to the media after arriving on Air Force One at John F. Kennedy airport. Bush was traveling to New York to attend the rededication of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum.  (Saul Loeb AFP/Getty Image)

Vice President-elect Joe Biden was on hand in New Castle, Del., to deliver remarks at a Veterans Day ceremony.  (Rob Carr / Associated Press)

U.S. Maj. Gen. Robert W. Cone, left, of the Combined Security Transition Command, congratulates a soldier on becoming a U.S. citizen during a ceremony Tuesday at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan.  (Rafiq Maqbool / Associated Press)