‘They died for our freedoms’: Scouts, volunteers place 250 veteran flags across downtown Bend for Memorial Day display

(Update: Adding video, Boy Scout's comments)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Monday is Memorial Day, when we remember and mourn our nation's over 1.3 million veterans and Bend's 112 veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice during times of war.

The Bend Heroes Foundation and volunteers honored Central Oregon's veterans with the display of 250 flags at Bend Heroes Memorial in Brooks Park, along Veterans Memorial Bridge (Newport Avenue) and on the streets of downtown Bend.

Boy Scout Troop 25, under the leadership of Scoutmaster Larry Jensen and volunteers, had the honor of installing the flags. Every flag was flown over our nation's Capitol and has a veteran's name embroidered on it, including 65 WWII Veterans.

Ethan Zmach, a senior patrol leader with the Scouts, said of the flag placement, "It's pretty fun."

"It's good to walk around with people you know and help out the community and stuff," he said. "It's really important, because they died for our country, and for our freedoms."

The flag placement was proceeded by a ceremony that began at 7 a.m. at the Bend Heroes Memorial and included the readings of President Biden's Memorial Day proclamation and Senator Ron Wyden's Memorial Day letter (see below) honoring veterans, followed by a ceremony honoring Seth Garrett Jones, LCPL USMC.

Seth Jones graduated from Mountain View High School in 1999 as a member of the Navy JROTC program. He entered military service in the United States Marine Corps and trained as a rifleman.

Jones was the youngest of 19 Marines who perished in a training accident involving a V22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft in Arizona on April 8, 2000.

LCPL Jones' name is displayed on the granite memorial and on an engraved brick on the memorial's plaza and Jones' flag was displayed on the Veterans Memorial Bridge.