SeeCalifornia.com

Most of us weren’t there when the U.S. lost 405,399 soldiers in World War II.  My father served in that war and is still alive to talk about it, though he really prefers not to. He was just a kid out of high school with bright hopes for his future. As children, my siblings and I dug into his box of photographs and saw stark images of battlefield death. My father, the nicest guy you’ll ever meet,  who never says a bad word about anyone, fought for his country and his life. He survived, though he saw many die.

Today on Memorial Day we honor those who died serving for our country. The majority died fighting in the Civil War,  a battle on American soil that claimed the lives of 625,00o men, including approx. 1,000 women who disguised themselves as men and took up arms.

Memorial Day tributes in the oldest national cemetery on the West Coast, San Francisco National Cemetery, will honor the lives of soldiers dating back more than 150 years. San Francisco National Cemetery is tied to the Presidio of San Francisco, a military fort first established by Spain in 1776.  Its designation in 1884 as a national cemetery marked an expansion of the national cemetery system beyond Civil War battlefields. San Francisco National Cemetery (nps.gov) on the grounds of the Presidio at 1 Lincoln Blvd. in San Francisco,  is open for visitation daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The fort at the Presidio remained under Spanish control until Mexico’s independence from the European nation in 1821. The Presidio came under U.S. control in 1846 during the Mexican-American War, and was expanded as a U.S. military facility during the Civil War period.