LAKE FOREST, Calif.—The city held a celebration for Flag Day on Tuesday, June 14 at Veterans Park beginning with a brief flag-raising at the newly installed flagpole.
Lake Forest Mayor Robert Pequeño introduced the ceremony saying the flagpole’s installation officially finishes the park.
“As a retired U.S. Marine, the American flag is very important to me ... [it] is a symbol of our freedom,” Pequeño told the crowd. “I am proud to be the mayor of the year [the flag] gets put up.”
Orange County Sheriff’s Department color guard presented a new folded U.S. flag to members of Boy Scout Troop 628. Two scouts respectfully unfolded and raised the flag for attendees to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
A young lady sang the Star-Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful during the ceremony.
Lake Forest was formerly known as El Toro, named after the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station, which decommissioned in 1993. City Manager Debra Rose told The Epoch Times there are many Marine veterans living in the city who love the community because of the city’s military background.
“Putting the flag here is just one more way we’re going to honor our veterans and really make this park a tribute to those veterans and what they gave,” Rose said.
The 4.7-acre Veterans Park was formerly known as Village Pond Park. In 2018 it was redesigned and re-dedicated with new installments representing each branch of the U.S. Armed Forces.
When the council finalized the completion of the park renovations in early 2019, it had monuments, but no flagpole. U.S. Marine veteran and community member Larry Arthur suggested the council put in a flagpole in a 2021 council meeting because he thought it was “missing something.”
“You got to put a flag up for criminy sakes,” Arthur told The Epoch Times. He attended the ceremony with several other veterans. “[The flag] means a lot.”
The monuments have each branch’s name, seal, and date of establishment on them. There is also a ceramic tiled sculpture of a folded flag on top of each monument to honor those who have sacrificed their lives for their country.
Flag Day is the celebration of the Old Glory’s official admittance as the country’s flag 245 years ago, on June 14, 1777, making it the perfect day for the city to hold the flag-raising ceremony.
