OUR LAGUNA: Patriots Parade a call for unity in tough times

The Patriots Day Parade Committee looked to the past for the 2009 theme and saw the future — E Pluribus Unum — the motto chosen by the country’s founding fathers who also faced war, economic crisis and deep political divide. Translated from Latin, it means “From Many — One.”

Once again the country is in an economic slump, at war and politically polarized. But E Pluribus Unum is more of a maxim than a motto, according to the parade committee.

“We respectfully believe our future as a nation depends on the many to once again become one,” said committee Chairman and Retired U.S. Marine Col. Charles Quilter II.

“We are many, but we will pull out of this together.”

However, there is not unity in the military about whether all veterans can salute the flag while pledging allegiance rather than placing their hands over their hearts.

David Connell, who led the pledge at the brunch said it was permitted, which kind of put Quilter in a pickle.

Marines are not allowed to salute out of uniform — “uncovered” as it is called by the military — or indoors unless they are armed, Quilter said.

“I don’t think anyone here is armed,” said Quilter, who served as master of ceremonies at the annual Parade Honorees Brunch on Sunday at Tivoli Terrace.

“Here in Laguna, we are fortunate to have so many outstanding persons whom we can honor,” Quilter said.

This year’s honorees are Grand Marshal Frank Mickadeit, Orange County Register columnist; Patriot of the Year retired Marine Lieut. Col. Don Segner; Citizens of the Year Ed and Lisa Sauls; and Junior Citizens Rachel Busic and Ryan Lawler, Laguna Beach High School seniors.

A design by high school sophomore Steven Bell was selected for the cover of the parade program, which will feature an essay by Thurston Middle School sixth-grader Taylor Addis. Both contributors received a $100 U.S. Savings Bond, donated by Bank of America and Citizens Business Bank.

Busic is a 4.4 academic all-star, an officer of the Central Asia Institute and president of the Dance Council.

She hopes to study mathematics and dance at UC Berkeley or UCLA.

Lawler is a star of the most successful boy’s basketball team the high school has put on a court in the past decade.

“He is the star — which probably makes him embarrassed,” Quilter said. “He is a scholar-athlete and has been offered a scholarship to Chapman, but he is also looking at San Diego and Loyola Marymount.”

Citizens of the Year are honored for their significant contributions to the community.

Ed and Lisa Sauls are among the co-founders of the Laguna Relief and Resource Coalition that sprung up following the 1993 firestorm and now offers services to low-income families and the homeless at a center supported by the city and community donations.

“I am here to honor Ed,” said past Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. President Pauline Walpin. “I think he is a very special person. He has kept the resource center viable all these years.”

The Sauls married in 1977, moved to Laguna three years later, and raised their three sons here — James is a U.S. Navy officer, Patrick works in the family business and Garret attends college.

Soon after moving here, the Sauls became active in the Laguna Presbyterian Church, SchoolPower, Friendship Shelter and as Performing Arts Boosters — taking on leadership roles in all of them.

He worked with the Laguna Interfaith Council to open the first Resource Center, which has moved many times since and is still looking for a permanent home, urged by the Homeless Task Force initiated by Mayor Kelly Boyd.

“As one of our parade association members [Anne Wood ] remarked about the Sauls’ many unheralded deeds: ‘Some people plant trees that they will never sit in the shade of,’” Quilter said.

High praise for pilot

When a former fighter pilot describes the accomplishments of a test pilot as some of the “scariest flying you can do,” you know he speaks whereof he knows.

That’s just one tidbit former Marine pilot Quilter shared about the 2009 Patriot of the Year, selected for serving the nation gallantly or meritoriously in time of war or national emergency.

“Don Segner is recognized both for his gallantry in combat as a Marine aviator and for his work as a test pilot on behalf of his country,” Quilter said.

Segner wanted to enlist when Pearl Harbor was attacked Dec. 7, 1941, but he was only 17 and was told to finish high school. He was accepted in the Navy’s V-5 Aviation Cadet Program during his senior year.

Ordered to active duty in mid-1943, he spent a year at College of Pacific and then began flight training with 169 other students to become a Marine carrier-based pilot, only 16 of whom completed the course.

Segner was only 20 when he was put in the cockpit of the famed Vought F4U Corsair at El Toro Marine Air Base, now abandoned.

“Get this, he wasn’t old enough to buy a drink in the Marine Room, and he was flying one of the Marine’s hottest aircraft,” Quilter said.

Another rare accomplishment: In 1950, he found himself assigned to a battalion landing team in the Mediterranean — one of the few Marines who can claim to have served “in the air, on land and on sea.”

He flew in combat over Korea and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, four Air Medals and the Presidential Unit Citation. He came back home and wed a high school classmate, Alice Stansfield, in 1952. They will celebrate 57 years of marriage later this year.

Segner was among the first to test an aircraft that resulted in the Marines’ Harrier attack jet that requires no runway and the first military pilot to fly the radical tilt-wing aircraft that evolved into today’s V-2 Ospray, which takes off and lands like a helicopter but flies like a winged aircraft, Quilter said.

Segner was courted by Lockheed, where his test piloting won his the prestigious Experimental Test Pilots Kincheloe Award in 1972.

He also was awarded the American institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chanute Flight Award for high speed testing of helicopters, which earned Quilter’s unadulterated admiration.

In all, Segner has flown 176 different types of aircraft.

The Segners’ son, Winston, attended the luncheon.

Unlike the other honorees, all Laguna residents, this year’s parade grand marshal just visits from time to time — to get dressed up (literally) to appear in “Lagunatics” or “Splash,” and to report in his Register column on our feats and foibles.

”I know a lot of you here won’t recognize me in male clothing,” Mickadeit said.

He has worked for 22 years as a reporter, an editor and now a columnist for the “Reg.”

Singing and dancing in public in drag and then writing about it earned him the honor of grand marshal, not to mention an endearing wide-eyed wonder at the vagaries of life and a just anger at its injustices.

“One of my drawbacks as a journalist is that I am not a cynic — I am barely a skeptic, so it is great to be here and cover the celebrations of this week,” Mickadeit said.

While the Patriots Day Parade may not compete in scope with the inauguration of a president, it is a major event in Laguna and as Quilter said: “Frank understands community.”

The parade is organized by a committee of volunteers headed by Quilter, Vice President Michel Lyons, Treasurer Sandi Werthe and Secretary Nina Rietsch.

Parade Day is March 7. Those who don’t volunteer and/or march, line the sidewalks to cheer.

It is so Laguna.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, Coastline Pilot, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; call (949) 494-4321, fax (949) 494-8979 or e-mail coastlinepilot@latimes.com