Comment on Bay Area remembers lost veterans at S.F. Memorial Day ceremony

Bay Area remembers lost veterans at S.F. Memorial Day ceremony Despite the drizzly weather and a chill that swept in from the Bay, a parade with a marching band filed up to the cemetery for San Francisco’s 147th annual ceremony. The occasion routinely draws more than 2,500 people to the Presidio, a site that has been part of military history since 1776, when Spain established its northern-most colonial outpost there. Some attendees sported the tricorn hats of the Revolutionary War in memorial of ancestors long dead; others wore the muted camouflage of today’s soldiers. A handful of men wore Yankee uniforms — double-breasted blue coats with gold buttons — to represent the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and other groups. Among them was Don Wilt, who traveled from Sacramento for the ceremony, helps people use public records to trace their heritage to learn if their ancestors fought in the Civil War. Wilt’s great-grandfather and great-great grandfather served in the Union Army during the Civil War, he said. “Our military service goes back to the Revolutionary War in my family,” he said.