BETWEEN THE PAGEANTRY of the uniformed color guard, the affecting scale of an aircraft carrier and the excitement of military jets flying in formation overhead, it was easy to forget that Memorial Day was about remembering the dead. 

“It’s 13:30 hours, time to start,” Vietnam War veteran Joe LoParo declared, calling into focus a crowd of about 200 that had gathered on board the USS Hornet — a massive, retired aircraft carrier and museum docked at Old Alameda Point in Alameda.  

Continue reading for FREE

This is NOT a paywall. We just want to make sure you’re a human. Sign in to read this story and receive the weekly roundup in your inbox.

Or

Terms & Conditions

Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in.
Please visit My Account to manage your account.

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.