Major General Robert D. McMurry Jr., head of the Los Angeles Air Force Base, was the keynote speaker Saturday afternoon at Fiesta Hermosa. The Memorial Day Weekend ceremony was the first of what the Chamber of Commerce promises will be an annual recognition of the military.
“It’s easy to get lost in statistics,” Major General McMurry Jr. said. “So which number is important? It’s not 500,000 military men and women lost in battle, nor the 6,800 lost since September 11, nor the 38 lost last year. The number to remember is one. In a combat zone, it’s about the individual.”
He reminded listeners to “remember the lost soldiers’ families, who bear the burden.”
Hermosa Beach resident Robert Payne, 95, was the day’s honoree. Payne was part of a top-secret, six-member team that built the “acoustic torpedo” at Harvard University during World War II. The torpedo was dropped from planes to sink German U-boats. Payne moved to Hermosa Beach in the late 1960s to manage test flights of the Thor, Titan and Atlas missile systems. He retired in 1979. ER
