Oak Harbor marks Memorial Day with annual service of remembrance
Oak Harbor’s 8th annual Memorial Day service brought lawmakers, a base commander and families to Maple Leaf Cemetery for remembrance.
At Maple Leaf Cemetery, Oak Harbor’s Memorial Day observance again showed how remembrance is carried forward on Whidbey, from elected leaders to military families and younger participants who learn the meaning of the day by watching it unfold. The 8th annual Service of Remembrance began at 10 a.m. Monday at 1961 NE 16th Ave., with doors opening at 9 a.m., and was hosted by the Pacific Northwest Naval Air Museum and American Legion George Morris Post 129.
State Rep. Dave Paul, U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and Naval Air Station Whidbey Island Commanding Officer Capt. Nathan Gammache were among the featured speakers at the cemetery, where the setting itself carried weight. Maple Leaf Cemetery dates to the early 1900s, and its long history gave the service a fitting backdrop as Oak Harbor marked Memorial Day not as a holiday diversion, but as a formal civic observance rooted in the island’s military heritage.
The annual service has become one of Oak Harbor’s most visible public gatherings, drawing more than 500 people each year. In recent Memorial Day ceremonies, that turnout has included color guards from Oak Harbor High School NJROTC, ORION Sea Cadets and the Sons of the American Revolution, along with a Missing Man Formation flyover by four EA-18G Growlers from NAS Whidbey’s VAQ-138 Yellowjackets. Those details show how the observance reaches across generations, combining active-duty service, veterans, families and school-age participants in one shared act of memory.
Gammache spoke to the purpose of the day in terms of sacrifice, framing service members’ deaths as rooted in love of family and country rather than hatred or glory. That message fit the tone at Maple Leaf Cemetery, where the ceremony placed individual loss inside a wider community of duty and gratitude. Memorial Day observances also took place in Coupeville, Clinton, Bayview and Sunnyside, underscoring how broadly Whidbey Island marked the day and how central remembrance remains to civic life in Island County.
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