Veterans organizations and locals paid their respects to fallen servicemen and women on Memorial Day across Sequim.
Sequim Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) Post 4760 members on May 27 led two ceremonies at Sequim View Cemetery, where more than 500 veterans are buried, and at Gardiner Cemetery where Marvin Shields, the first U.S. Navy Seabee to be awarded the Medal of Honor, is buried.
American Legion Jack Grennan Post 62 members also hosted three ceremonies on May 27 — at Blue Mountain Cemetery, Dungeness Cemetery and Jamestown Cemetery.
Virginia Peter, a Sequim resident for 17 years, was one of about 100 attendees of the Memorial Day ceremony at Sequim View Cemetery, and said she’s come every year out of “built-in respect.”
Her father served in World War I, four brothers in World War II, and two husbands in the Korean War, all between the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army, she said.
Peter said she’s certain she’s known someone who had lost their life during their military service, and one brother survived a mid-air collision while flying, and another brother survived being run over by a tank.
Asked why Memorial Day is so important, Peter gestured to the hundreds of miniature flags around her.
“Because of all this,” she said. “What the veterans did for us.”
Memorial Day became an official federal holiday in 1971. Flags were placed in Sequim veteran’s gravestones on Saturday and removed late Monday.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Nancy Zimmerman, chaplain for American Legion Post 62 places a wreath during a Memorial Day ceremony on May 27 in Sequim View Cemetery.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Rick McKenzie plays the bagpipes to open a Memorial Day ceremony in Sequim View Cemetery.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Rick McKenzie plays the bagpipes to open a Memorial Day ceremony in Sequim View Cemetery with members of the Veterans of Foreign War Post 4760 and American Legion Jack Grennan Post 62 standing at attention.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Members of the Veterans of Foreign War Post 4760 and American Legion Jack Grennan Post 62 hold a Memorial Day ceremony on May 27 in Sequim View Cemetery honoring those lost while serving in the U.S. armed forces. It was one of five ceremonies held in the Sequim area between the two groups on the day of remembrance.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Members of the Veterans of Foreign War Post 4760 and American Legion Jack Grennan Post 62 give a silent salute during a Memorial Day ceremony on May 27 in Sequim View Cemetery honoring those lost while serving in the U.S. armed forces.
Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash/ Rick McKenzie plays “Amazing Grace” as Paul Renick, finance officer for American Legion Post 62, stands at attention on May 27.
Photo by Peter Segall/Olympic Peninsula News Group / Members of the Mount Olympus Detachment 897 of the Marine Corps League give a 21-gun salute at a Memorial Day ceremony at Mt. Angeles Memorial Park in Port Angeles on May 27. The ceremony was hosted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6787 of Carlsborg and was one of many Memorial Day events held in Clallam and Jefferson counties.
