Friday, May 23, 2003 | 5:12 a.m.
The dedication of the Operation Iraqi Freedom permanent exhibit at the Gobel-Lowden Veterans Center and Museum will highlight a weekend of solemn remembrances for Memorial Day.
Former Nye County Sheriff Wade Lieseke and his wife, Susan, parent figures for Lt. Frederick Pokorney, one of two Nevadans killed during the war, will attend the ceremony and unveil the tribute to Pokorney as part of Sunday's ceremony, Ed Gobel, the museum's chief executive, said.
The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. at the museum at 3333 Cambridge St.
"This is a significant exhibit because we strive to pay tribute to veterans of all wars involving U.S. military personnel," said Gobel, a Vietnam veteran. "All veterans are treated equally here because, in each war, brave Americans fought and died to preserve our freedoms."
On Monday, the annual observance to honor fallen warriors will be at 1 p.m. at the Southern Nevada Veterans Cemetery in Boulder City.
Cemetery Director Jack Porrino said this year's event is hosted by the American Legion and will include the dedication of the Women Airforce Service Pilots monument.
The WASP monument features a small granite stone with metal wings atop a white stone base. Its inscription reads: "Fly wingtip to wingtip with your brothers." It will join about 20 other war monuments that surround a fountain at the cemetery's entrance.
WASPs ferried planes during World War II, logging more than 60 million miles in 77 different types of aircraft. Thirty-eight died in that service, but their recognition was long in coming.
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill into law that officially recognized WASPs as military veterans, with all the rights and privileges of veterans. In 1979, the Air Force issued honorable discharges to all members of WASPs.
By opening an Iraqi Freedom exhibit so soon after the brief war, the Gobel-Lowden Museum is assuring that recognition for today's fighting men and women -- about 100 of whom died in the cause -- will be preserved in Southern Nevada.
Pokorney, a graduate of Tonopah High School and the father of a 2 1/2-year-old girl, was the first soldier from Nevada to die in the war. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Marine Lance Cpl. Donald John Cline, 21, of Sparks also was killed in action in Iraq.
Sunday's ceremony also will feature the Helen Joy Studios teenage chorus singing patriotic songs, a selection by the Council of Nevada Veterans Organization Band under the direction of Gil Martinez and the appointment of museum board member Linda West Myers, a daughter of a World War I veteran, as assistant state chaplain of the Nevada chapter of the Chapel of Four Chaplains.
On Monday, four of Nevada's five congressional members are expected to attend the cemetery ceremony with Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman and Boulder City Mayor Bob Ferraro.
Small American flags have been placed on the more than 14,000 graves of Southern Nevada's veterans by area volunteers. Memorial Day originally was Decoration Day, when mourners placed flags, flowers and other decorative items on the graves of the dead in a tradition that dates back to just after the Civil War.
Other ceremonies specific to various veterans organizations will be held throughout the valley this weekend.
archive
