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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2011
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www.SDNEWS.com Volume 17, Number 7
Veterans Day 2011
Veterans celebrated
Editor’s note: This is the second installment in a series throughout the month of November highlighting veterans’ experiences.
for their sacrifices Tristan Wyatt served in the U.S. Army in Iraq — until he lost his right leg in an insurgent attack in 2003. Photo courtesy of Tristan Wyatt.
A soldier’s life: changed in an instant BY MARIKO LAMB | VILLAGE NEWS reason,” he said. In August 2003, just months after the invasion of Iraq War veteran Tristan Wyatt found something he Iraq, the best career Wyatt was truly passionate about in could have imagined was the U.S. Army — a career he abruptly halted in a single would have pursued had it incident. The then-21-year-old solnot been for a debilitating dier was conducting route injury near the start of the reconnaissance in Fallujah war in 2003. when his unit was ambushed “I don’t really know what it was about that job, or maybe by 30 to 40 insurgents who even being in combat, that emerged from trenches on was just appealing to me,” he both sides of the road. “They were everywhere. It said. “I wanted to stay in for as long as I could because I was crazy,” he said. “It was instantaneous. We just immeloved what I was doing.” After high school, Wyatt diately engaged the guys on joined because he said he felt the left-hand side.” A sudden firefight ensued, compelled to serve his country following the 9/11 and just as Wyatt maneuvered to gain a better posiattacks. “I think I would have felt tion, a team of insurgents guilty if I didn’t do it for some SEE WYATT, Page 2
Veterans, their families and those who appreciate the nation’s heroes gathered at the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial on Nov. 5 for the memorial’s Veterans Week celebration. The event included former prisoners of war, above, patriotic attire, below, and a dramatic “Missing Man” flight formation, right, by the San Diego T-34 team, which capped off the ceremonies. Louis Zamperini, a World War II veteran and former POW, was honored with a plaque at the memorial. Brig. Gen. Daniel Yoo delivered the keynote address to visitors, including District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner, Congressman Bob Filner and state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher. Photos by DON BALCH | Village News
WWI couple memorialized at Mt. Soledad BY MARIKO LAMB | VILLAGE NEWS Two veterans of World War I — Sgt. Arnold Robert Mitchell and Lt. Marguerite Mitchell — have received the gift of a very special view of the coast this Veteran’s Day. The Mitchells have become the first veteran couple from the Great War to be honored with a plaque on the Mt. Soledad memorial wall, according to the manager of the Mt. Soledad Memorial Association. Former District 1 City Councilman Bill Mitchell said he has always wanted to pay tribute to his father’s heroic
actions during the war and his mother’s philanthropic spirit with a memorial plaque. The story behind the commemorative black granite plaque, however, tells more than that. It also tells the story of a forbidden romance between the two, who married in secret while they were both enlisted. Arnold, a combat medic in the 1st Infantry Division, fought in six major battles from 1910 to 1920, earning campaign bars for each. During one particular battle in Soissons, France in
1918, he saved the lives of 13 men by running into waves of gunfire to carry wounded soldiers to safety. Bill recalls his father detailing the scene down to the glisten of Germans’ bayonets and the gruesome extent of soldiers’ wounds. One of the 13 men his father saved was then-Maj. Clarence Huebner, Arnold’s commanding officer, who would later become Lt. Gen. Huebner — a war hero who gained fame for leading the attack on Omaha Beach in Nor-
Arnold and Marguerite Mitchell met and married in secret during World War I. He was a sergeant in the Army and she was a lieutenant and an Army Corps nurse. The pair have finally been memorialized for their service with a plaque on Mt. Soledad, making them the first couple from World War I to take a place on the Courtesy photo SEE PLAQUE, Page 5 memorial.