{"id":271,"date":"2026-05-26T10:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=271"},"modified":"2026-05-26T10:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T10:38:27","slug":"some-did-not-come-home-speakers-reflect-on-meaning-of-service-as-community-honors-fallen-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingtohawaiiguide.com\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Some did not come home\u2019: Speakers reflect on meaning of service as community honors fallen veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For most Americans, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, with beach outings and backyard cookouts the order of the day.<\/p>\n

Read more Andrei Svechnikov, Hurricanes grab edge over Habs with another OT win<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For most Americans, Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, with beach outings and backyard cookouts the order of the day.<\/p>\n

That said, more than 100 people gathered Monday morning at East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery No. 2, to celebrate the most somber and patriotic of American holidays. The commemoration was organized by volunteers led by Jeno Enocencio-Peck, an Army Vietnam War veteran who provides honor guard services at funerals of military veterans.<\/p>\n

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By presidential proclamation, the U.S. flag is flown at half-staff from sunrise to noon on Memorial Day to honor military men and women who died in America\u2019s wars. Then, from noon to sunset, the flag is raised to full-mast to exemplify a living nation and those who serve it.<\/p>\n

In Hawaii, the state flag is also included in those orders, by proclamation of Gov. Josh Green.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s ceremony included military marches and patriotic anthems, Christian prayers and Buddhist chants, rifle salutes and the reading of the names of veterans who have died since last Memorial Day. Sitting silently nearby were the decorated headstones of deceased veterans and their spouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy grandmother is buried here. My father-in-law is buried here. My friends who I\u2019ve loved my whole life are in this ground \u2014 right here, just steps from where I\u2019m standing,\u201d said JoNelle Fukushima, a County Council candidate from Hilo and one of two speakers who shared their mana\u2018o with those in attendance.<\/p>\n

Fukushima, who said she spoke not as a candidate but as family, is the granddaughter of a WAC \u2014 an acronym for Women\u2019s Army Corps and the name given to women who served in the Army between 1942 and 1978. She described her grandmother as \u201ca soldier, one of the originals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe put on the uniform when the world told women they had no place in it and she served, anyway \u2014 with grace, toughness and with everything she had,\u201d Fukushima said. \u201cShe was a patriot before it was celebrated. \u2026 And she is here, not just in this ground but in my heart, and with me now, on this island she loved \u2014 part of the greatest generation, as they were called, for good reason. My father-in-law served. My uncle served.<\/p>\n

\u201cService is not a chapter in my family\u2019s story; it is the whole book. So when I speak these words today, know that I\u2019m not just reading from a script, I\u2019m standing on sacred ground with all of you, where our people rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

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With the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence a little more than a month away, Fukushima noted the nation\u2019s revolutionary origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo-hundred-fifty years ago, a group of imperfect visionary people declared that freedom was worth fighting for,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd in every generation since, on every continent, every ocean, every theater of war, this broken and beautiful world has produced men and women from these islands (who) answered that call. They left the smell of plumeria and sea salt. They left children who would grow up without them, spouses who had learned to sleep alone, parents who would never stop listening for their footsteps at the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome came home changed in ways that no one could see. Some did not come home at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fukushima said she wanted to \u201cspeak plainly \u2026 because people in this ground deserve plain truth, not comfortable words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now on this island, veterans are sleeping without a place to call home,\u201d she said. \u201cMen and women who bled for this country are navigating a maze of disconnected services, reduced benefits and bureaucratic walls. And some of them, exhausted and broken, simply stopped asking for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at these grave markers and I think about what it took to be the kind of person who ends up here. The discipline, the sacrifice, the willingness to put everything on the line. And then, I think about what we are offering the ones still living and I feel something close to shame. Here on the Big Island, we are underserved compared to Oahu. We have organizations doing heroic work but they cannot find each other. Our veterans cannot navigate the sea of disconnected services. And we keep accepting this as just the way things are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fukushima said she is working with others in the community \u201cto build a coordinated wraparound service network on this island \u2014 housing, healthcare, mental health, employment, legal aid, all connected, all accessible, no veteran falling through the cracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long way to go but we have our mission,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The other speaker, Gerald Cristobal, also spoke to veterans as family. His oldest son, Isaiah, is a Navy veteran who served both as a Seal and an explosive ordinance disposal technician, as well as on the escort teams of President Barack Obama\u2019s last visit to Hawaii and President Donald Trump\u2019s first-term Korea trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us all be in remembrance that this is a great country that we live in,\u201d Cristobal said. \u201cAnd to those who have passed and to those who are here, our brothers and sisters who are physically sick, who are on the street, or in a hospital bed, let us remember every day of our lives for all of you and all of them around us.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBecause of them we have freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Email John Burnett at john.burnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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