Vets honor the fallen

Sergeant-at-arms “Skipper” Tim Bercovitz stood at the back of the American Legion hall on the Balboa Peninsula with a gavel and a bell Tuesday.

Forty-four names of officers from the local organization, Post 291, who died since Veterans Day last year were read from the podium at the front of the hall. After each name there was a short pause, and when nobody responded Bercovitz said in a stentorian voice “no answer,” and the piercing sound of the bell rang throughout the silent auditorium.

This isn’t Bercovitz’s first time performing the solemn ritual, but the 76-year-old Korean War veteran said it becomes more difficult each Veterans Day.

“As the years go by I hear more of my friends’ names on that list and I get some goose bumps. Some guy will be back there calling my name one day,” he said.

Bercovitz simply had to walk out the front door of his home to join the roughly 100 other veterans and family members at the gathering. He lives on a 44-foot sailboat, which was docked outside of the American Legion hall, right on the bay.

The boat is easy to spot because of the large American flag at the top of the mast that Bercovitz flies 24 hours a day, lighting it up in the nighttime.

When all of the names of veterans that went to the “post everlasting” were read, the crowd walked outside and stood on the sunny walkway as the rifle squad marched to the end of the nearby dock and fired commemorative shots into the air.

Then red flower petals were released into the bay, and they floated away while the group watched.

During lunch after the ceremony many of the veterans reminisced about their service in wars from World War II to Iraq.

Rick Heagle was drafted and served in Korea even though he was not a U.S. citizen at the time. He had just moved to California from Canada in 1965 to attend college, but since he registered for the selective service he was called in for duty, Heagle said.

During a time when many were heading to Canada to avoid enlisting, he decided to stay.

“It was probably the wisest decision that I ever made because in the 1960s and 1970s military service wasn’t laudable by any measure,” Heagle said.

He was naturalized while in the military and says he remains thankful to this day that he chose to be a part of the “freedom that is America.”

The vast majority of veterans in attendance served in either Vietnam or Korea. John Stege, a World War II pilot living in Newport Beach, was one of the older men present, born not long after the first Armistice Day in 1919. He was relaxing and sharing stories with a few attentive younger veterans at the event.

“I just feel very sad that my buddies didn’t make it,” the 88-year-old Stege said.

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ALAN BLANK may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at alan.blank@latimes.com.