and federal elected officials also attended.

On the coast, L.A. Fleet Week planned to close out its four-day salute to the U.S. military with a Memorial Day observance Monday evening. The presentation of colors and a keynote speaker were set to be among the highlights of the ceremony, scheduled fittingly in front of the battleship USS Iowa in San Pedro.

Standing firm after a setback last week, the Paramount Elks Club soldiered on with its Memorial Day Honoring and Remembering ceremony at the Paramount Armed Forces Memorial in the city’s Civic Center.

A statue honoring fallen veterans was vandalized just days before this year’s event. The community plans to repair the statue, but there wasn’t time to do the work before this year’s ceremony.

The event included a roll call of deceased veterans, recognition of veterans in attendance, the playing of taps and a wreath laying.

Some pieces of the “Battlefield Cross and Soldier” statue were discovered to have been sawed off and stolen days before.

The life-size memorial, installed in November, portrays a kneeling soldier paying tribute to a fallen comrade.

“Shame on you for hurting the hearts of people whose hearts have already been devastated through loss,” Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons told NBC Channel 4.

Lemons said she was across the street from the statue with her granddaughter when she noticed its rifle and helmet were missing — vandalism that will costs tens of thousands of dollars to repair.

A city statement called the vandalism “a shameful act of disrespect to those who risked their lives protecting our country and freedoms, as this memorial stands as a symbol of honor and their sacrifice.”

“Let’s stand together to protect the memory of our heroes,” the post said.

Lemons said that if the perpetrator “did this because of money, you could come to us. We have lots of programs and lots of services available to help you. You don’t have to go to these lengths and ... make an emotional attack on the families of people who’ve already lost so much. They didn’t need to lose this, too.”

The mayor and law enforcement urged the community to share any information that is known about the vandalism. The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department’s Lakewood Station can be reached at 562-623-3500.

In Arcadia, meanwhile, the Memorial Day tributes began on Saturday, as leaders gathered to remember the fallen who fought in America’s wars, but also paused to take note of those who served in the military and also fought the Eaton fire.

Arcadia’s 27th annual Tribute to Veterans and Military Families, held each year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, celebrated a theme of “bravery and resiliency.”

The event, at Arcadia Community Regional Park, honored first responders from the L.A. County Fire Department and L.A. County Sheriff’s Department who served communities during the Eaton fire and who also served in military.

Like many events sprinkled through the area, it didn’t include just one ceremony. There was also a resource fair for veterans and their loved ones, equipment displays, food trucks, live music and family activities.

In Pasadena, a ceremony at City Hall included the reading of 320 names of people from Pasadena who lost their lives in battle. It was led by Vice Mayor Jess Rivas and cadets from the Pasadena division of the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps and Blair High School’s Army Junior ROTC.

In West Covina, residents and leaders gathered at the city’s veterans memorial at City Hall. There, they honored not only those whose names were already on the memorial, but also three more whose names added this year after a resilient research effort. William T. Lang, Jack W. Wilke and Homer H. Cushman joined their peers on the memorial.

The La Cañada Flintridge Memorial Day Parade began at Cornishon Avenue and traveled east along Foothill Boulevard to Gould Avenue. Its theme was “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

The grand marshal was Ivan Cregger, who served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, including in Operation Tidal Wave. The 1943 bombing mission on nine oil refineries in Romania was called “one of the bloodiest and most heroic missions of all time” in a 1999 research report prepared for the Air War College, with 310 U.S. aircrew members killed or missing and 190 aircrew captured or interned. There were 53 B-24 bombers destroyed and another 55 damaged.

A memorial service at Memorial Park preceded the La Cañada Flintridge parade.

Green Hills Memorial Park’s ceremony once again brought a large crowd to Rancho Palos Verdes for its annual Memorial Day service to honor those who died during active military duty, those impacted by those deaths and those who are serving in the armed forces.

This year’s Memorial Day service featured a patriotic concert, alongside the opening ceremony of The Moving Wall.

The Moving Wall is a half-size replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and has been touring the country since 1984. The replica typically spends about a week at each site it visits, according to the memorial’s website.

In Long Beach, Honoring Our Fallen’s Memorial Day Reading of the Names began before dawn at Rosie the Riveter Park. The event included the

Members of Gold Star families, local active-duty military personnel, law enforcement, first responders and veterans assisted in reading the names of the 7,057 Americans who have died in combat and training exercises since the 9/11 attacks, as reported by U.S. Central Command, in order of death and as inscribed on the park’s memorial wall.

Memorial Day ceremonies and observances were also planned at:

The C. Robert Lee Activity Center in Hawaiian Gardens

Lancaster Cemetery

Lacy Park in San Marino

Whittier City Hall

The Acton Community Center

Highland Park’s Veterans Memorial Square

Glendale City Hall

Park Lawn Cemetery in Commerce

Cerritos Civic Center

Forest Lawn memorial parks in Glendale, Covina Hills, Hollywood Hills and Long Beach

Veterans Park in Lomita

Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood

Eternal Valley Memorial Park in Newhall

The Mines Avenue Veterans Monument in Pico Rivera

The Memorial Obelisk outside Inglewood City Hall

Del Valle Park in Lakewood

The Norwalk Cultural Arts Center

Rose Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary in Whittier

Wilmington Cemetery

The American Legion’s Hollywood Post 43

What became Memorial Day was first observed on May 30, 1868, as Decoration Day, a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the Civil War dead with flowers.

It had been established 25 days earlier by Maj. Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, an organization of veterans who fought for the Union in the Civil War. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the nation.

By the end of the 19th century, Decoration Day ceremonies were being held on May 30 throughout the nation. After World War I, the holiday was changed to honor Americans who died fighting in all wars.

The term Memorial Day was first used in 1882, became more common after World War II and declared the official name by federal law in 1967.

Memorial Day was moved to the last Monday in May in 1971 under terms of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which became law in 1968.

Staff writers Donna Littlejohn, Kristy Hutchings and Ryan Carter and City News Service contributed to this report.