The group honoringourfallen.org held a virtual reading Monday of names of armed forces members who have given their lives in service since 9/11.
The event began live-streaming at dawn at www.honoringourfallen.org. The group usually holds the event at sunrise at Rosie the Riveter Park in Long Beach but is unable to do so this year due to the pandemic.
Active duty military, police, first responders and veterans were assisting with the reading of the names. A bagpipe tribute was scheduled for 11 a.m., and all names should be completed by 1 p.m., according to Laura Herzog of honoringourfallen.org.
Herzog also said the group would be celebrating the renaming of a Los Alamitos interchange of the San Gabriel River (605) Freeway in memory of a Long Beach soldier killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan.
The official unveiling of the renamed interchange of the 605 Freeway at Katella Avenue as the United States Army Sergeant Thomas R. MacPherson Memorial Interchange will happen later this year. Herzog told City News Service that she hopes to do it on Oct. 12, which will be the eighth anniversary of his death.
Born in Long Beach, MacPherson, 26, “was killed by enemy forces on Oct. 12, 2012 during a heavy firefight while conducting combat operations in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan,” Herzog said. “He was leading an assault against an enemy position when he was mortally wounded by small arms fire.”
It was fitting that the announcement of the designation could be made on Memorial Day, she said: “As our motto states ‘A Hero Remembered Never Dies.”’