Andrew Lembrick takes a moment at his parents’ grave on Memorial Day at the Willamette National Cemetery in Happy Valley, Ore., on May 25, 2026. His father served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
Eli Imadali / OPB
Oregon’s national cemeteries and veterans memorials came alive Monday on Memorial Day, as people gathered to remember their fellow veterans, brothers, classmates and neighbors who lost their lives during military service.
In Happy Valley, hundreds of people gathered at Willamette National Cemetery for a ceremony that included a rifle salute and a performance of “Amazing Grace” by the Portland Fire Fighters Pipes and Drums.
Valerie Morey presented a wreath on behalf of the Gold Star Wives, a national nonprofit that serves active duty spouses and surviving spouses of those who died in connection to their military service.
“It’s one of the biggest honors I can have, and it hurts terribly and it never gets easier,” Morey said, choking up. Morey lost her late husband, Vietnam War veteran Steven Morey of the U.S. Army Rangers, to Agent Orange, an herbicide used in the conflict, which was later found to be associated with cancer and neurological damage in people exposed to it.
Afterwards, families walked among the graves. Andrew Lembrick took a moment at his parents’ grave to place their favorite candies, a Snickers bar and peanut M&Ms, on the gravestone alongside some flowers he brought. His father served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and his mother is buried with him there.
Across the Willamette, the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial sits at the top of a circular green amphitheater surrounded by Douglas fir trees in Portland’s Washington Park.
On Monday, veterans took turns reading out the names of the hundreds of Oregonians who were killed or missing in action in Vietnam. The names of the dead echoed across the park for nearly an hour.
Stephen Lawrence, a writer and the former mayor of The Dalles, spoke at the ceremony that followed. He wore a suit and tie and a hat bearing pins and medals from his service as an infantry lieutenant with the 1st Cavalry in Vietnam.
“Old soldiers and families remember them all. The ones who died and the ones who lived,” Lawrence told the crowd. “Before we served, we did not know them, these friends, but we never forgot them. Their families live with their death or the person who came home.”
On his phone, Lawrence keeps a photo of himself posing in his army uniform shortly after being drafted. Another photo, snapped by one of his fellow soldiers, shows Lawrence looking gaunt and weary from lugging a heavy pack through the jungle in the midst of the war.
“Every day is Memorial Day,” he said. “I spend every day remembering what we all went through.”
After Lawrence spoke, a bugler from Glencoe High School played taps, haunting and sweet, and families and veterans lost in thought made their way up the memorial’s spiraling path.
Navy veteran and Naval Academy graduate Don Haslett visits the Oregon Vietnam Veteran's memorial in Portland, May 25, 2026. Haslett lost a high school friend, a classmate from the naval academy and a shipmate in the war, which he described as "senseless." He visits the memorial every year. "It's emotional. It's hard to talk about it," he said.
Amelia Templeton / OPB
Don Haslett, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and veteran of the Vietnam War, said he has come to the memorial every year since its dedication in 1987. Haslett is proud of his record of service and grateful to the Navy for his career, but never felt he understood why the United States was fighting in Vietnam.
Haslett was on active duty for eight years, serving as a weapons officer on two ships, a destroyer and a minesweeper.
“I’m here to remember the friends I lost. How senseless I thought this war was,” he said, fighting tears.
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.
And 805 Oregonians died or were listed as missing in action in the Vietnam War.
Small U.S. flags mark each veteran’s grave on Memorial Day at the Willamette National Cemetery in Happy Valley, Ore., on May 25, 2026.
Eli Imadali / OPB
