USAA’s Poppy Wall of Honor is returning to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for the seventh year this Memorial Day weekend.
The temporary exhibit features more than 600,000 poppies, each representing the military members lost in service to our country since World War I.
“In the poem, `In Flanders Field,’ a young soldier is burying a good friend at the end of World War I, and he remarks on all the poppies that are growing across the field in the cemetery and covering the grave sites, and he points to the poppy to represent each every one of those service members,” said USAA spokesman James Honea, who served as the the 16th Maser Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. “That is where the poppy became popular as that symbol.”
The poppy became a universal symbol of remembrance after it was brought forward by Moina Michael, an American professor and volunteer for the American YWCA, during the National American Legion Conference in 1920.
“If anyone goes forward, fights for our freedom, and defends our way of life, if they are fallen in combat, we return them to their family,” said Honea. “And we also hold their legacy and their stories to be sacred. No one is truly lost until they have been forgotten.”
In a time where less than half of American adults understand the significance of the holiday, the Poppy Wall serves as a visual tribute that honors those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, while educating visitors on the purpose of Memorial Day, said Juan C. Andrade, president and CEO of USAA.
“Memorial Day is a time to pause, reflect and honor those who never came home. We share a responsibility to remember their service and the freedoms they helped protect,” he added.
Since 2018, more than 60,000 people from around the world have visited the Poppy Wall of Honor to pause and reflect on the significance of this holiday, remembering those who gave their lives for our freedoms.
Ways to Honor and Remember This Memorial Day
For those unable to visit the Poppy Wall of Honor in Washington, D.C., USAA is offering other ways that Americans can honor the day, including:
- Discover stories of the fallen with #PoppyInMemory on social media and join the conversation to keep their memory alive.
- Wear a poppy on your shirt or lapel.
- Fly the American flag at half-staff until noon on Monday, May 25, to honor those who have fallen, and raise it to full staff through sunset to pay tribute to surviving veterans and those currently serving.
- Observe the National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day.
- Visit a local military memorial to honor the ultimate sacrifice of our nation’s heroes.
Visitors in Washington, D.C., can experience the Poppy Wall of Honor beginning at 11 a.m. ET on Friday, May 22, through 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 24. Full operating hours, location details, additional information, and stories about Memorial Day can be found at www.usaa.com/memorialday.
In addition to USAA’s Poppy Wall of Honor, USAA will be sponsoring an Honor Flight from Denver to Washington, D.C. with the Honor Flight of Southern Colorado, where over 50 veterans from the Vietnam and Korean Wars will get to experience the Poppy Wall and the many monuments across our nation’s capital. For many of these heroes, this will be their first time visiting the monuments constructed in honor of their unwavering service.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
