Scouts plant 130,000 flags at Willamette National Cemetery for Memorial Day

On the Friday evening before Memorial Day, Anderson Voigt, 11, made his way down a row of graves of World War II veterans in Portland’s Willamette National Cemetery.

On a normal day, Voigt would be thinking about school. There were just 11 days left in fifth grade. Or he’d be thinking about the two cats, a dog and six chickens he helps take care of at home, and the rabbit that his parents have promised to get him this summer.

But on this Friday, he was thinking about the men and women whose names were inscribed on the grave markers around him.

For the last 58 years, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have helped mark Memorial Day at Willamette National Cemetery and have decorated the graves there. The holiday is the national day of remembrance for men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.

In Portland on Friday, hundreds of scouts and their families gathered for a solemn ceremony to mark the beginning of the holiday.

The cemetery, normally quiet, was filled with children carrying armloads of tiny American flags. They had 130,000 of them to set out before the sun set.

This was Voigt’s fourth year helping out. Moving down the rows with a small crowd of other boys from Canby Troop 882, he tried his best to be reverent as he worked.

He placed his feet carefully, mindful of the coffins lined up under the dirt beneath him. “Their head is right above the gravestone,” he pointed, “so you walk here.”

He read the name on every marker out loud as he planted a flag firmly in the dirt in front of each one with a salute.

“To us scouts and veterans, people can die twice, not once, twice,” he said. That second death, he explained, happens when a person is no longer spoken of, and when they have been fully forgotten. “That is why we say their name.”

Across the state, Oregonians are celebrating a day off work, and remembering friends, family and classmates who served in the military and, in some cases, died in that service.

More than 5,000 Oregonians have died in the wars of the 20th and 21st centuries, with the greatest losses during World War II. Seventy-four Oregonians died in Iraq, and 34 have died in Afghanistan.

As Voigt’s troop worked, nearby, a woman named Sally Jo Armstrong set a vase of tulips at the grave of her uncle, a veteran of the Korean War.

“It’s like giving out Christmas cards,” she said. “I think about people when I do cards. And I think about my relatives and friends when I do this.”

Memorial Day grew out of the tradition of leaving flowers on the graves of Civil War soldiers in the springtime and evolved over the years. It became a federal holiday in 1971. Modern ways to mark the holiday, in addition to decorating graves, include participating in a national prayer for permanent peace, established by Congress in 1950, and observing a minute of silence at 3 p.m. local time for those who died in service to the nation.

Most veteran memorials and cemeteries in Oregon are hosting ceremonies of remembrance, and some communities also hold parades. The Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing will conduct flyovers across Oregon and Southwest Washington.

Gov. Tina Kotek shared a written statement marking the holiday, calling it a day to remember the human cost of war and to honor those who never returned home.

“May we continue building an Oregon and a nation, worthy of extraordinary sacrifice of those we honor today,” she said.