Memorial Day tributes across Central Oregon remember the ultimate sacrifice
Cities across Central Oregon mourned and honored the military personnel who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country this Memorial Day. Originally known as Decoration Day, the annual observance serves as a solemn reminder of those who gave everything to preserve our freedom.
Observances in Bend, Redmond, Prineville, and Sisters included flag displays, parades, and wreath-laying ceremonies.
Cadets with the Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) from Mountain View High School, La Pine, and Crook County were in Washington, D.C., and marched in the 250th Memorial Day Parade.
Bend and Redmond Remember Those We Lost
Bend Heroes Foundation and volunteers honored Bend's 112 war dead by displaying 250 flags at Bend Heroes Memorial in Brooks Park, along Veterans Memorial Bridge and throughout downtown Bend. This year marks the 21st year that Boy Scout Troop 25 has volunteered to display flags on Memorial Day, as well as Independence Day.
Boy Scout Troop 25, led by scoutmaster Travis Farstvedt, will begin its Memorial Day activities with a brief ceremony at Bend Heroes Memorial at 7 a.m. The President's Memorial Day proclamation will be read, followed by flag installations. Every flag displayed bears the name of a veteran, a veterans group or Boy Scout Troop 25, and all flags were previously flown over the nation's Capitol.
In Redmond, flags will line Terrebonne Pioneer Cemetery to honor fallen service members, including Medal of Honor recipient Robert "Bob" Dale Maxwell. A ceremony ran from 9 a.m. to 9:45 a.m. The community is also invited to Redmond Memorial Gardens for another ceremony from 11 a.m. to noon. Redmond citizens have paid for and participated in placing major flag displays on every patriotic holiday every year since 1991.
Crook County Remembers the Ultimate Sacrifice
Prineville's Memorial Day events include a parade from 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., starting at 4th and Main Street. The parade will travel east down 4th Street to Elm Street, ending at the Memorial Park area of Ochoco Creek Park, which features POW/MIA and Hot Shots monuments.
Following the parade, attendees walked north one block to the Elm Street Bridge for a special wreath ceremony. Representatives from the Prineville VFW Auxiliary and American Legion will ceremonially drop all-natural memorial wreaths into Ochoco Creek in honor of U.S. military veterans who died at sea.
Honoring the Fallen in Sisters
In Sisters, observances will take place at Sisters Village Green Park at 11 a.m. Brigadier General Jim Cunningham will deliver the keynote address. Cunningham, a retired captain for United Airlines, is also a member of the Central Oregon Veterans Outreach Program. He previously served as the Commander of Oregon National Guard, where he was responsible for the organization, training and equipping of seven units and more than 2,100 personnel within the state.
Cunningham gained combat experience as a forward air controller in the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron, Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, during the Vietnam War. The Sisters' observances are sponsored by Veterans of Foreign Wars post 8138, American Legion post 86 and Band of Brothers-Sisters. Lunch will follow the observances and all community members are invited.
