Palm Springs Air Museum honors veterans with Memorial Day Air Fair and Flower Drop

Crowds of Coachella Valley residents and visitors gathered to honor veterans at the Palm Springs Air Museum on Monday.

The museum hosted its Memorial Day Air Fair and Flower Drop, which included a ceremony where red, white and yellow flowers were dropped from the air. This year’s event specifically paid tribute to prisoners of war from the Vietnam War, because it was the 50th anniversary of their homecoming.

1st Lt. Kevin Shannon, commander of the Palm Springs 11th Composite Squadron for the Civil Air Patrol, said the squadron helps out at the annual event by doings tasks like presenting the flowers to the aircrafts and guarding the planes. The squadron is headquartered at the air museum.

“It’s very important for the air museum to host this event because it continues to show, especially our younger community, the importance of service,” Shannon said.

At least 1,000 people attended the fair and ceremony, many of them veterans and/or family members of veterans. The event also featured music from the Heatwave Show Band, flight exhibitions, food and drinks, helium balloons and even Harpo the Clown.

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“I’m proud that they have something like (this), for us that served,” said Albert R. Villa, a Vietnam War veteran.

Villa was with several family members, including his son, who is also named Albert. Albert Jr. said they were there to honor their grandfather, who lived in the Palm Springs area and died in World War II. The pair are members of a gold star family, a term that refers to the immediate relatives of someone who died during their military service. Cpl. Hunter Lopez's family is the most recent Coachella Valley gold star family.

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“It’s a long history of family service and sacrifice,” he said, adding that his oldest son is an active military member.

Rene Valtier, a navy veteran who served in Lebanon, said he was overwhelmed and happy to see the outpouring of visitors at the event.

“I’m just proud of all the veterans, living and unliving,” he said.

Donna Williams, CEO of Honor My Veteran and director of scholarships programs for VFW Auxiliary Post 3699 in Indio, was working at a table inside the museum. She had artwork on display from the VFW Auxiliary's Young American Creative Patriotic Art Contest, where high school students submit patriotic art for the chance to win scholarships.

She said local scholarships by VFW Auxiliary Post 3699 in Indio are awarded in her father's memory. Daniel Farchione was a World War II veteran and prisoner of war who survived six months in a German prison camp.

“He came and lived with me in the desert for four years," she said. "He passed away at 97 and a half … he went to the VFW meetings and he became loved by everyone at the VFW. So they were all very, very gracious and let us do the scholarship in his name — local awards are given in his name."

The event concluded with a ceremony that honored gold star families and Vietnam prisoners of war, a procession of airplanes, a missing man formation (in memory of fallen pilots and other military members) and the annual flower drop.

Ani Gasparyan covers the western Coachella Valley cities of Desert Hot Springs and Cathedral City. Reach her at ani.gasparyan@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Veterans and supporters honor Memorial Day at Palm Springs Air Museum