Understand why families, Scouts, and dignitaries return year after year to outer east Portland’s Willamette National Cemetery on Memorial Day morning …
Two veterans stand in a sea of small American flags at Willamette National Cemetery, pausing in the green grass to remember fallen comrades on Memorial Day Cemetery in outer East Portland on Mt. Scott, on May 25. East Portland News
Story and photos by David F. Ashton
Under a gray, cool morning sky that slowly brightened atop Mt. Scott – families, veterans, and community members gathered at Willamette National Cemetery for the 76th Annual Memorial Day Observance on Monday, May 25.
The sprawling hillside in outer East Portland, already lined with thousands of small American flags, again became one of the region’s largest stages of remembrance, as the community paused to honor those who served and sacrificed in the U.S. Armed Forces over the decades.
Through images and accounts from organizers, broadcasters, and service organizations, the ceremony emerged as one steeped in tradition – grounded by the quiet presence of more than 130,000 veterans, laid to rest on the slopes above SE Mount Scott Boulevard.
The Friday afternoon before Memorial Day, Boy Scouts spent hours planting thousands of American flags at Willamette National Cemetery, honoring the veterans laid to rest on the grass on the top of Mt. Scott. East Portland News
In advance, a hillside of flags, placed one by one
The observance effectively began the Friday evening before Memorial Day, when hundreds of Boy Scouts and adult volunteers fanned out across the cemetery’s rolling sections for the annual flag placement.
Working in neat rows, Scouts and families carefully placed approximately 130,000 American flags – one at each grave. Reports from previous years described coordinated participation from multiple troops and packs across the region, with some events drawing more than 200 young people. This year’s effort reflected that same scale and spirit, with Scouts working shoulder-to-shoulder alongside veterans, parents, and community members.
For more than 50 years, the Thunderbird District of the Cascade Pacific Council, Boy Scouts of America, has coordinated this solemn tradition. Some scouts paused to read the veteran’s name aloud before planting the small flag, ensuring that the grave was personally acknowledged and honored. The result by Friday night: A sea of red, white, and blue stretching across the slopes of Mt. Scott, ready to greet Memorial Day visitors.
Military members of a Joint Service Honor Guard post the Colors to open the 76th Annual Memorial Day Observance at Willamette National Cemetery — one of three national cemeteries in Oregon. *
Ceremony on Mt. Scott
Memorial Day morning dawned overcast and slightly cool, a typical late-May sky for outer East Portland. From 10 to 11 a.m., Willamette National Cemetery hosted what is considered the Portland area’s largest annual Memorial Day commemoration — drawing families of the fallen, veterans from multiple generations, and civic and military leaders.
The observance opened at the main ceremony area inside Willamette National Cemetery, just uphill from SE Mount Scott Boulevard, with a formal wreath-laying, and a series of prepared remarks.
Two Oregon Air National Guard F-15 Eagle jets from the 142nd Wing at Portland Air National Guard Base roar past in the partially overcast sky, above the treeline of Mt. Scott, staging a patriotic flyover over Willamette National Cemetery for the Memorial Day Observance. *
At 10:15 a.m., the reflective quiet was broken by the roar of Oregon-based U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles overhead. The jets, from the 142nd Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard, swept above the cemetery – as part of a regional schedule of nearly a dozen Memorial Day flyovers in communities across the state. For many in attendance, the flyover offered a powerful visual and audio reminder of the ongoing commitment of today’s service members.
‘We are standing on hallowed ground’
This year’s keynote speaker, Gold Star Father Wendall Pelham, focused on the legacies of those who never came home.
“We are standing on hallowed ground,” Pelham told the crowd, emphasizing that the hillside carries stories of courage and loss.
Gold Star Father Wendall Pelham delivers the keynote address during the Memorial Day Observance at Willamette National Cemetery. *
“Men and women have given their lives so that we could spend this beautiful day together, today sharing their legacies,” continued. “These are Americans who answered their nation’s call – not because it was easy, not because it was safe, but because they believed there were things greater than themselves worth defending.”
His remarks bridged the distance between historic conflicts and present-day freedoms, urging listeners to see Memorial Day as more than a three-day weekend.
A Joint Service Honor Guard team of military members performs a rifle salute during the Memorial Day Observance at Willamette National Cemetery. *
By 11 a.m., the formal program had concluded, but families and visitors remained – walking the grounds, pausing at names, flags, and memorials that stretched back through multiple eras of American conflict.
‘Red, white, and blue America’
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who makes a point of returning to Willamette National Cemetery each Memorial Day, framed the observance as a moment to look beyond divisions.
“It’s not about ‘blue America’. It’s not about ‘red America’. It’s about red, white, and blue America,” Wyden observed.
His comments underscored the unifying nature of the event – one place and one time where political stripes fade, behind shared gratitude for those who served.
Family members, friends, and other visitors move among thousands of American flags at gravesites in Willamette National Cemetery in outer East Portland following the Memorial Day Observance, which honors all who died in service to the United States, in peacetime and in war. East Portland News
A tradition that continues
From the Scouts’ careful work on Friday, to the solemn ceremony the following Monday morning, Memorial Day at Willamette National Cemetery once again blended ritual, reflection, and community participation.
Boy Scouts, veterans’ organizations, military units, public officials, and families helped transform the quiet East Portland hillside into a region-wide gathering of remembrance, keeping the names etched into stone on this “hallowed ground” at the center of outer East Portland’s Memorial Day story.
* Oregon National Guard photo by John Hughel
© 2026 David F. Ashton ~ East Portland News™
