Photograph courtesy of Willys Peck

When Saratogans gather here for the 71st annual Memorial Day ceremony, the arch will be sporting a new coat of white paint.




Saratoga's arch gets a facelift for Memorial Day ceremony

Heritage preservation commission to paint landmark white

By Steve Enders

Saratoga's Memorial Arch has weathered 80 years of changes in Saratoga and this year, the arch will see yet another drastic alteration before it serves as the site for this year's 71st annual Memorial Day ceremony.

It's going to be painted white by members of the city's Heritage Preservation Commission starting on Friday, May 28. The group hopes to have it finished sometime Saturday.

The commission, according to city planner Heather Bradley, decided to paint the arch mainly to return it to its original state. It hasn't always been yellow, she said.

"And in honor of the soldiers; they thought white was more appropriate," Bradley said.

The Saratoga Fire District will help purchase paint for the arch.

The arch was built in 1919 as a remembrance to the Saratogans who didn't come home after fighting overseas in the first World War.

For years, it stood in a small park and plaza where Highway 9 runs now. Because of the highway's widening, the arch was slated for demolition in 1965.

It was spared by a local group of investors, headed by Charles Blaney and moved to its current location, just south of the Saratoga Fire District's fire house.

It now stands in tribute to all soldiers who have died in various conflicts for the United States as well as, the plaque says, "that citizenship which serves without reward, the public good."

The Saratoga Memorial Day observance has been a tradition for more than 70 years, held originally by ranchers and townspeople. The ceremony has been sponsored by the Saratoga Foothill Club since the mid '20s.

Each year begins with an invocation and wreath-laying ceremony. This year, Rita McCarty and Wil Morrison from the Foothill Club will lay the wreath. The ceremony at the arch will begin at 9:30 a.m.

After a flag raising and musical performance by the Saratoga High School Band, the procession will lead up Oak Street at 10 a.m. to the Madronia Cemetery, where 602 Saratoga veterans are buried.

Once there, after greetings and introductions from Foothill Club members and Saratoga Mayor Jim Shaw, Wilbur "Bill" Pecka will address the group for the second year in a row.

His speech this year is entitled "Women who did their part for our country."

The 80-year-old first lieutenant was shot down over Germany in WWII while navigating a B-24 Liberator bomber for the 8th Air Force, one of the most heavily hit units in the war. His fellow airmen, flying out of England, suffered nearly 30,000 casualties and saw 26,000 captured.

Pecka was one of those POWs, and was held in Germany for a year and a half.

His son followed the family military tradition and served as a Green Beret in the Vietnam War.

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