These are some great posts. Wish I could have been there. That type of opening ceremony is what America needs a whole lot more of, instead of the stuff we see so often nowadays. My father and father-in-law both served in the Pacific. Dad was on a troop-cargo transport and drove those landing craft up on the beaches. He wears his WWII veteran cap all the time, and people always come up to thank him. Dean was a marine sergeant when the war started. He was one of only two guys out of a hundred in his outfit who survived the war.