Six names being added to Veterans Memorial on May 26

By Danielle Harrison

Smoke Signals editor

Six names, including that of Tribal member Justin Foster (Army), will be added to the West Valley Veterans Memorial during the Monday, May 26, ceremony being held on the Grand Ronde Tribal campus.

The six pillars at the West Valley Veterans Memorial feature the names of Tribal and community members from Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan who served in the four major branches of the U.S. military – Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

The addition of the names this year will increase the number of those honored on all pillars to 2,391.

The memorial had four pillars until 2023, when the Tribe received a $33,000 grant from Oregon State Parks to install two new black granite slab pillars at the memorial because the ones containing names of Army and Navy veterans were reaching capacity.

Other names being added include Bruce Cohen, Arthur Lamarche, John Pitt and Leo Seidel on the Navy pillar and Rick Sardegna on the Air Force pillar.

The Memorial Day ceremony will begin with a meal being served in the Tribal Community Center starting at noon and the ceremony occurring outside at the West Valley Veterans Memorial starting at 1 p.m.

The memorial was designed by late Tribal Elder Steve Bobb Sr., a Vietnam War-era Marine Corps veteran who walked on in August 2022. It features a man and woman dressed in traditional Native clothing standing side by side while reaching for the sky.

This will be the 22nd Memorial Day celebration at the West Valley Veterans Memorial, which was dedicated in May 2003.

Additional details about the ceremony were not available before press time.

For more information, contact Veterans.SEB@grandronde.org or Molly Leno at 503-983-6790.