Members of the Law Enforcement Explorers salute during the Memorial Day program at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Services were also held at the Hawai'i State Veterans Cemetery in Kane'ohe.

Brenden Davis of the U.S. Air Force kisses his daughter Savannah, 4 during the 2004 Memorial Day Ceremony at National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl. Photos by Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser

Vince Souki, a 74-year-old Korean War veteran, sat with other veterans beneath a white tarp and talked of his memories of Pusan and the men of the 5th Regimental Combat Team who died there.

Among those men was Chuck Schnider, a Kaimuki man, about 22 years old then, with a son who would be in his 50s now.

"A very good friend," Souki said. "Big haole guy — almost 6 foot 3. Real jovial guy."

Schnider's humor helped keep Souki sane on the trip from Hawai'i to Korea. They talked about their plans for their lives after the military. Eleven days after they arrived, Schnider was killed in an ambush.

Thoughts of Schnider and the others lost in Pusan play often through Souki's mind these days.

"It seems like such a mess we've got now, in Iraq and Afghanistan," Souki said. "And I reflect back."

Military representatives and veterans, some missing limbs, marched or rolled forward in wheelchairs for a ceremonial wreath laying.

"In Korea," Souki said, "we had a stake. We more or less had to go in. In Iraq? I don't think so."

It will take us a while to get ourselves out, he said.

The clouds rolled down from the mountains as Miles Miyamoto, master of ceremonies, announced the color guard. A close formation of military members, accompanied by the Hawai'i Royal Guard, marched forward.

As they posted the flag, the rain began to fall. It fell harder during the National Anthem and Hawai'i Pono'i, soaking two dozen veterans' standard bearers, many of them men in their 70s, as they stood with hands in salute.

Leonard Kling, 80, was in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. He said he attended the Memorial Day ceremony every year, and thought it was important to honor those who had fallen. He said he'd decided against going to Washington for the dedication of the national monument to the veterans of World War II for health reasons, but said he thought the monument was a good thing.

"Only took 'em 60 years," he said.

At the podium, Cynthia Stine of the American Legion talked about "the tradition of the blue star banner" — those tapestries parents of deployed soldiers hang in their windows. The stars are replaced with gold when a son or daughter is killed.

The legion hopes to rekindle the blue-star practice, she said.

Kling said his grandson, Joshua Devera-Igarta, is in Iraq. He had advice for Joshua and the other deployed men and women.

"Don't be a hero," he said.

Gov. Linda Lingle gave the Memorial Day address. She said she'd heard people compare the war in Iraq to Vietnam, and she thought that was wrong.

The mission in Iraq is a valuable one, she said. She talked of Hawai'i's sons and daughters she had met on a visit to Iraq, and of the importance of the work they were doing.

They were heroes, she said.

The sun came before the 21-gun salute, the playing of taps and a flyover by four Marine Corps CH-53D Sea Stallion helicopters. Steam rose from the damp grass and pavement.

Father Richard Rubie, a 75-year-old priest of the St. Francis of Assisi Celtic Catholic Church who celebrates the 1 p.m. Sunday mass at St. Andrew's Cathedral, stepped slowly from beneath the shade of the veterans' tarp as the ceremony ended.

"I've seen enough killing and I've killed enough people," he said.

He'd spent 14 years in the Marine Corps, starting in China at the end of World War II, then fighting at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

In combat, he said, people must become like animals to survive.

In 1960 he left the Marine Corps and became a priest.

"To find peace of mind," he said. "The church put me back together."

Rubie said he supports the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and hopes that the men and women serving there will look to religion for the strength they will need.

A good sense of humor is also vital, he said.

Whiskey helps, too.

"I put a little in my coffee," he said. "With cream."