Riveting speech, rousing concert mark ceremony in Laguna Woods (2024)

Fernando Arroyo sat alone in his studio apartment, the barrel of his pistol in his mouth.

After nearly two years of military duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, Arroyo was done with war.

But the war was not done with him.

Nightmares of what he had seen in the combat zones plagued him, memories of friends killed in action haunted him, and survivor’s guilt was tearing him apart.

He prayed to God to give him a sign, any sign, to let him know why he shouldn’t pull the trigger of that pistol in his mouth.

But God wasn’t there.

Slowly, gently, Arroyo started squeezing the trigger.

Suddenly he heard a bang. He pulled out the pistol, looked around for blood, felt the back of his head for an exit wound. But there was none.

Then he realized that the bang had come from a Bible that had fallen to the floor in his room.

“God was there the whole time,” he said.

Arroyo, 39 years old and a resident of Santa Ana, told his story as keynote speaker at the Memorial Day ceremony Monday, May 27, at the Laguna Woods Performing Arts Center.

A near-capacity crowd packed the auditorium of 814 seats to honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for peace, freedom and the country.

The ceremony opened with a moment of silence and an invocation by Alan Clark, chaplain of Laguna Woods’ American Legion Post 257. Dennis Powell, post commander, then led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance.

A host of speakers followed, giving thanks to those who fought, prayers for those who died, and reflecting on the principles they served to protect.

The Korean American Association expressed gratitude for the sacrifice of the nearly 37,000 Americans killed during the Korean War and presented a donation to Post 257.

Without the Americans, association Vice Chair S.K. Park said, there would be no South Korea.

The association choir then sang “God Bless America,” with many in the audience singing along.

But it was Arroyo’s speech that riveted the attendees into silence and then prompted them to give him a standing ovation and cheers of appreciation.

Arroyo was in high school when the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, happened. He had wanted to join the military since childhood, but on 9/11, he knew the time had come for him to enlist. He ended up in the Army with the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Then came combat. First, Fallujah, the site of the deadliest battle in the Iraq War. Then Afghanistan. Then Iraq again for the military surge.

And then came the memories, the nightmares and the guilt.

Arroyo found help, he said, and wrote the book “The Shadow of Death: From My Battles in Fallujah to the Battle for My Soul.”

Laguna Woods resident Jay Donahue, a Navy veteran who was in the Mediterranean and Cuban theaters in the 1960s, called Arroyo’s speech “very moving.”

Resident Frank Searle, 91, who was with the Scottish Battalion Commonwealth Division in the 1950s and fought in Korea and the Suez conflict, said Arroyo “made us feel as if we were part of it.”

“Outstanding, powerful,” said part-time resident Paul Anderson. “It was one of the best messages I’ve heard.”

The ceremony went from riveting to rousing as the All-American Boys Chorus, based in Santa Ana, performed.

The chorus, a Laguna Woods favorite and an annual part of the Memorial Day ceremony, wrapped up its concert with a salute to the armed forces, singing the official songs of each service: “The Army Goes Rolling Along,” the Air Force’s “Wild Blue Yonder,” the Navy’s “Anchors Away,” the Coast Guard’s “Semper Paratus” and The Marines’ Hymn vowing to storm “from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”