Pastor Mike Dillman — a man who made it his mission to make sure Manteca never forgets the sacrifices men and women have made serving in the military to secure the nation and preserve our freedom — will no longer stage the Memorial Day Not Forgotten Commemoration.

The multiple-day event brought in excess of 20,000 people annually to Woodward Park over the past 15 years.

“Usually at this time of the year we are right in the middle of praying, planning, promoting and developing the annual Not Forgotten event at Woodward Park in Manteca,” Dillman said in a letter sent this week to the hundreds of volunteers that have made the event possible. “However, after much prayerful thought and consideration, Janice and I have concluded, we will no longer be able to put on this event.”

Dillman indicated he and his wife are in the process of putting together a new project in order to encourage people to continue to remember those who have fallen while serving America. It will focus on the 62 men from Manteca who have made the ultimate sacrifice dating back to World War I.

Dillman over the years has shared there was only one thing he regretted serving as a soldier in Vietnam.

The airliner returning him and other troops from their final tour in Vietnam was approaching Seattle. A video featuring Richard Nixon was shown. The president thanked the soldiers for their service and then told them to remove their uniforms as quickly as possible as the environment in the United States had changed and it wasn’t friendly toward those returning from the Vietnam War.

“It’s an order that to this day I regret following,” Dillman said in 2010.

It was an era when servicemen wearing uniforms as they passed through airports returning home from war were spat on and had protestors screaming “baby killers” and “murderers” at them.

Years later after the terrorist attack on 9-11 prompted the Global War on Terror Dillman vowed he’d do everything in his power to make sure those who fought for their country returned to the embrace of a grateful nation and not one that treated soldiers as they did during the Vietnam era.

What began as a patriotic musical drama to honor our fallen heroes and veterans in the local church that Dillman pastored grew to one of the largest Memorial Weekend events on the West Coast according to military personnel.

“It has been an amazing impactful run,” Diliman noted. “I would like to take this opportunity to say to you who have made this premier event happen over these years, who have contributed financially, who have labored sacrificially — you are to be commended.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com