In an otherwise perfunctory news release sent out Thursday from the New Mexico Department of Veteran Services announcing a full slate of Memorial Day commemorations, I came across a rare flash of official annoyance.

That flash of emotion, unusual for a government agency, was expressed in the following line:

“To many Americans, [the Memorial Day weekend] also signals the unofficial beginning of Summer, something which irritates many others like New Mexico Department of Veterans’ Services Cabinet Secretary John M. Garcia — who fear the true meaning of the day has now been lost.”

I interviewed Garcia for this week’s episode of New Mexico In Focus, and asked him to elaborate on that attention-grabbing sentiment. And he obliged.

You can watch that interview here, or tune in to KNME (Channel 5 in Albuquerque) at 7 p.m. for tonight’s broadcast.

Garcia also gave his thoughts on New Mexico’s long history of extraordinary military service — by per capital measures, among the very highest of any state — as well as the “need” (his view) for a new state veteran’s museum, not to mention his take on the incendiary anti-vet comments made by actor Val Kilmer, the potential 2010 candidate for governor.

There are an estimated 180,000 vets in New Mexico — nearly 10 percent of the state’s population.

Half way through the interview, Garcia shared the story of his fellow Vietnam veteran, Enrique Valdez of Santa Fe.

The late Marine was severely injured by shrapnel during a firefight in the Quaison Mountains — and was left a quadriplegic as a result. This weekend in Washington D.C., Valdez is set to be posthumously honored for his service, his name etched into the reflective black wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Valdez will be the 400th New Mexican added to the wall. To learn more about Valdez’s story, be sure to watch the video above.