05/25/2026
Memorial Day 2026
Memorial Day was first observed on May 30, 1868, and called Decoration Day but it wasn’t until 1971 that Congress made it a national holiday and a 3-day weekend. Memorial Day is not a 3-day weekend to sell mattresses, have BBQs or the unofficial beginning of summer. No, it has a much deeper and solemn meaning. It is the day we set aside to remember our fallen servicemen and women. Look around you at the veterans and Gold Star families gathered here today..this day we hold sacred.
Today is not a day to thank a veteran, we made it out of our military service alive, our brethren did not. Memorial Day is the day we remember our fallen. As President Lincoln wrote “from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
At cemeteries across the globe, wherever the remains of an American Servicemember are laid to rest Memorial Day is observed. Let me tell you about one such cemetery. The cemetery was plotted out in prime agricultural land. It would eventually comprise over 65 acres on an historic highway.
The first ground in the cemetery was broken with the labor of the largely African American 960th Quartermaster Corps at the outset of what would be a historically cold and wet winter. The workers used picks and shovels to create a standard grave that was 6 feet deep, 6 feet long and 2½ feet wide. After processing, the body was to be placed in a mattress cover with its dog tag in its mouth. As the winter went on the process was complicated by frozen remains, the constant flooding of graves before they could be filled, and the inability of transport and machinery to maintain reliable solid ground.
Today this cemetery contains of 8,301 graves of fallen American Servicemembers, but what is amazing about this cemetery, more so than others is that THIS cemetery is in Margraten, Netherlands. Even more amazing is that almost all of these graves are maintained by families in the Netherlands. Not by the government, not by a special fund but by individual families. There is even a waiting list of families wanting to maintain a grave site. These Dutch families who tend to the sites, place flowers, and research the soldiers' stories as an ongoing gesture of gratitude for their liberation. During Dutch Memorial Day weekends, the sponsoring families display thousands of photographs of the fallen next to their headstones.
“Why?” one might ask. Why would families in the Netherlands, generations removed from World War II, devote themselves to honoring American dead they never met?
Because..they..remember.
They remember that young Americans crossed an ocean not for conquest, not for riches, but to liberate people they did not know. They remember the sound of freedom arriving in the darkest days of occupation. They remember that thousands of American sons never returned home so that others could live free.
And so, year after year, these Dutch families quietly fulfill a sacred promise: that OUR fallen will never be forgotten.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what Memorial Day is truly about.
It is about remembrance.
It is about gratitude.
It is about understanding that freedom has always carried a cost paid for by brave men and women who stood in harm’s way and never came home.
Today, across this nation, flags will wave, families will gather, and many Americans will enjoy this holiday weekend. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the freedoms we enjoy. But before the cookouts begin and before the day slips away, let us pause and remember those who made all of it possible.
Remember the soldier standing watch in frozen trenches.
Remember the sailor lost at sea.
Remember the airman who never returned from a mission.
Remember the Marine who fell on foreign soil.
Remember the Coast Guardsman who answered the call.
Remember the Gold Star families whose sacrifice did not end when the battle did.
And remember that every name etched into cold stone once belonged to someone’s child, spouse, parent, or friend.
As long as we speak their names, tell their stories, and honor their sacrifice, they are never truly gone.
If you have lost a child, spouse, parent, or friend in service to our nation join me in speaking their names now and pause for a moment of silence: Col. Raymond A. Omphroy and SGT Diana Marie.
May God bless our fallen heroes, may God comfort their families, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.
