LYNNWOOD—Nearly 200 people gathered Monday at Veterans Park in Lynnwood City Center to honor the United States service members who gave their lives in defense of the nation, with Washington Attorney General Nick Brown delivering a keynote address that drew on his own military experience to speak about the bonds forged in service and the ongoing needs of veterans and their families in Washington state.
The annual Memorial Day ceremony, hosted by the Lynnwood American Legion Post 37 and Lynnwood Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1040, took place at Veterans Park on the Civic Center campus south of the Lynnwood Library. Emcee John Beam, a U.S. Navy veteran and past commander of VFW Post 1040, guided the program, which opened with an entrance procession by the Legion of Honor Nile Shrine Center and the VFW Post 1040 Honor Guard. VFW Post 1040 Bugler Glenn Ledbetter, also a Navy veteran, sounded the calls, including Tami Wagoner, past president of VFW Post 1040 Auxiliary, who offered the invocation. The event included music, the laying of a wreath and a live rifle salute.
Lynnwood Mayor George Hurst opened his remarks by recalling the City’s two annual observances at Veterans Park — Veterans Day in November and Memorial Day in May.
“It’s today, on Memorial Day, that we honor the heroes who have died in the service to their country and we honor their families,” said Mayor Hurst.
Hurst drew inspiration from Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful,” which begins with the song’s third verse: “Oh beautiful, for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.”
For more than 250 years, Hurst said, patriots have answered that call, from the village green in Lexington, Massachusetts, to those who died in the undeclared wars in the Middle East. He paid homage American Gold Star Mothers and the Woody Williams Foundation—a Marine veteran of World War II and Medal of Honor recipient for his actions at Iwo Jima, who lent his name to veterans’ memorial monument at the plaza.
Hurst described how he regularly brings seventh graders from local schools to the monument as part of civics lessons. This year, two Gold Star mothers and local artist Michael Reagan joined the tour to explain its significance to students, Hurst shared. Five items lie buried in its foundation: a Gold Star mother coin, a Medal of Honor coin, a coin commemorating the monument itself, a vial of water from a fountain at Belleau Wood in France and a container of black sand from Iwo Jima.
Yet the most striking feature, Hurst said, is the large empty silhouette of a saluting service member.
“It is a fitting symbol of the empty space left in the families of the fallen,” Hurst said. “It’s all about a life not fully lived. Family events missed. The everyday joys and sorrows missed because of a life cut short.”
Veterans Park itself stands as a permanent tribute developed by VFW Post 1040 beginning in 1999. The veterans memorial in the plaza honors those who served in past wars, with the names of the fallen etched into it. May also marks a time to recognize Gold Star families — those who have lost a loved one in military service — and the monument provides them a dedicated place of remembrance.
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, elected as Washington’s 19th attorney general in November 2024, spoke as both the state’s top law enforcement officer and as a fellow Army veteran. A proud graduate of public schools and son of public servants, he attended Morehouse College through ROTC, earned a law degree from Harvard University, served in Iraq with the Army JAG Corps, later became general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee and was appointed by President Joe Biden as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington.
Brown thanked organizers and acknowledged the veterans, service members’ families and Gold Star families in attendance at Lynnwood’s Memorial Day ceremony.
“On Memorial Day, we honor the service members who gave everything to defend this country, its values, its founding principles, its people, and its Constitution,” AG Brown said. “And I know that this community will never forget their sacrifice because of the beautiful memorial and monument that we have in tribute of their lives. The names of the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice are etched on this memorial behind us and they will never be forgotten.”
Brown recalled his time serving in Baghdad, where traditional divisions of race, class and political belief dissolved, he said, in the shared commitment to a common mission and to bringing everyone home.
“The military community including families of those who served and sacrificed, are united through service,” he said. “When you are serving in service of your community and in your country together, those divides pass away. Those divides based on race, class, political beliefs, none of those matters when you’re serving together. What tied us all together was that our love for this country and our desire to serve and the desire to see everyone get back home.”
He pointed out that the nation is once again at war in the Middle East with Operation Epic Fury, yet public understanding of military service remains limited even in a state like Washington with approximately 500,000 veterans—one out of 16 people in the state. Events such as this one, he said, help reaffirm appreciation for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice.
The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has made supporting veterans a priority, Brown said through its Veteran and Military Resource page. Research by his team shows that service members, veterans and their families face unique challenges, including access to housing and jobs. His office has connected hundreds with free legal aid, pursued landlords who exploit veterans and recruited three dozen additional pro bono attorneys to expand assistance.
“We cannot, we must not, we should not forget those who have given their lives in the line of duty,” Brown said. “And we also can’t look away from the Gold Star families, our veterans, and those who love them.”
As many across the state spent the holiday focused on time off or travel, Brown reminded attendees of Memorial Day’s deeper meaning: “Coming together in a moment like this is a small, small sacrifice that we can make to honor the lives that were given in the service of our country. God bless America.”
Snohomish County, home to about 45,680 military veterans, marked the day with its own formal recognition on May 20. Command Master Chief Jeffrey Fleming accepted a resolution from the Snohomish County Council and a proclamation from County Executive Dave Somers urging residents to observe a national moment of remembrance at 3 p.m. Monday by pausing for one minute to honor all who died in military service.
Governor Ferguson ordered the lowering of the Washington State and United States Flags and issued a Proclamation in recognition of Memorial Day.
“Today, we remember the courageous service members who fought and died for our country,” Governor Bob Ferguson wrote in a statement to X. “Their sacrifice preserved the freedoms and rights guaranteed to all people under the United States Constitution, ensuring that liberty endures for future generations. We are grateful for their sacrifice, and we honor their memory.”
Nationally, President Donald J. Trump joined by Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine at the 158th Memorial Day commemoration at Arlington National Cemetery. There, President Trump spoke of the sacred ground where more than 400,000 service members rest.
“We honor those who fell so that our Republic might stand, those who died so that our nation could live, those who gave up their sacred light on earth so that the sublime light of American freedom would shine forever and ever,” Trump said who later quoted Scripture, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful servants.”
Trump observed that the first servicemember buried at Arlington—a 19-year-old Union soldier—and reflected on the thousands of names — Williams, Johns, James’s Issacs, Elijahs, Earls, Hanks, Helens, Juans, Margrets, Marius’s, Donalds and others — that together tell “the true story of American Greatness.”
“Beneath arching trees and white stones so beautiful, these many are made one again — united forever as brothers and sisters in arms, and children of our Father in Heaven,” Trump said.
Memorial Day first took place on May 30, 1868, in Arlington National Ceremony to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers — both Union and Confederate — and was originally called Decoration Day. One of the earliest Memorial Day ceremonies was organized by approximately 1,000 Black people freed from enslavement in Charleston, South Carolina a month after the Confederacy surrendered in 1865.
However, Waterloo was designated “The Birthplace of Memorial Day” on March 7, 1966, in Albany, New York, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed a proclamation of designation. It wasn’t until 1971 that the U.S. Congress established the last Monday of May to officially be a federal holiday honoring Memorial Day.
Each Memorial Day, a formal ceremony takes place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where the president of the United States (or designee) lays a wreath. The flag is flow at half-staff from sunrise until noon on Memorial Day and at 3 p.m. the nation pauses for one minute to remember and honor the U.S. Military personnel who died in service; some even wear a poppy to show respect, a tradition inspired by “In Flanders Fields,” a World War I poem written in 1915 by John McCrae.
In Lynnwood, Gold Star Family monument’s empty silhouette at Veterans Park along with sand from Iwo Jima and the water from Belleau Wood, serve as tangible reminders of lives cut short and the debt owed to those who paid the ultimate price.
As both Brown and Hurst made clear, the Memorial Day is not merely about remembrance but about carrying forward the devotion those heroes showed with quiet acts of service.
Other elected officials in attendance at Monday’s Lynnwood Memorial Day recognition were Lynnwood City Council President Nick Coelho; Lynnwood City Council Members Chelsea Wright, Bryce Owings, David Parshall, and Robert Leutwyler; Mountlake Terrace Mayor Steve Woodard; and former Lynnwood Mayors Christine Frizzell and Tina Roberts-Martinez.
This year’s Lynnwood Memorial Day sponsor was Simon Hatzey of eXp Realty.
Author: Mario Lotmore
