Celebrating our veterans: Veterans Day 2018
The historic Lancaster Cemetery, part of the Antelope Valley Cemetery District, located in the heart of the City of Lancaster, will host a Veterans Day ceremony at 9 a.m., Monday, Nov. 12 at the the Veterans Court of Honor.
As always, we are honoring and celebrating veterans from all wars and conflicts.
The Joe Walker Civil Air Patrol will present the Colors. P.J. Walker will sing the National Anthem and Pastor Ken Gardner of Christ Our Savior United Methodist Church, will give the Invocation. Chris Parke will play TAPS on his bagpipes and a patriotic medley of songs. Halley Olsen Murphy Funerals and Cremations will provide the refreshments.
Our guest speaker will be retired Air Force Lt. Col. Toni Flanagan. As a second lieutenant, Toni Sawyer (nee Flanagan) graduated from the U.S. Air Force Intelligence School in Denver in 1968. She was assigned as a radar bomb scorer for F-4 Phantoms and F-105 Thunderchiefs stationed at Korat and Takhli RTAFB in Thailand.
Flanagan was also assigned as a briefing/debriefing officer for an F-105G Wild Weasel squadron. The F-105 Wild Weasel unit mission was to attack and destroy anti-aircraft sites, and later the surface-to-air missile sites in Laos and Vietnam. Flanagan became one of the very few females to ever fly in a two-seat F-105.
Upon leaving active duty in 1978, Flanagan remained in the Air Force Reserves and became the chief of intelligence support for the 711th Special Operations Squadron at Duke Field Fla., — an Air Force Reserve AC-130 Gunship unit. In 1980, she became the First Intelligence Officer for the reserve C-130 Air Rescue Squadron, March AFB, Calif. Flanagan became the first Air Force Intelligence Officer for the C-141 Reserve Air Transport Wing, Norton AFB, Calif., and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. She retired from the Air Force in 1990.
In 1987, Flanagan began her civilian teaching career at St. Mary’s elementary school in Palmdale teaching junior high Science. Later, she finished by teaching biology at Highland High School. During the same timeframe, she has been heavily involved with local 4-H, youth, and AV Fair Livestock activities. She is married to Lt. Col. Bill “Flaps” Flanagan.
The Veterans Day program at Lancaster Cemetery will remember those veterans from all wars and conflicts that have served, and continue to serve our country, so that we may continue to live our lives in freedom. We welcome all members of the community to attend.
For more information, contact Dayle DeBry or Karla Archuleta at 661-942-6110.