Hundreds gather at Kauai Veterans Cemetery for Memorial Day observance

Sunshine drew hundreds to the Kauai Veterans Cemetery at 4331 Lele Road in Hanapepe, where Memorial Day again functioned as both ceremony and community pilgrimage. Families, veterans and Scouts moved through the county veterans cemetery, pausing at graves that hold service members and relatives from across Kauai. An online memorial index lists 3,350 memorials there, underscoring how much of the island’s military and family history is concentrated at the site.

The annual observance, organized by the Kauai Veterans Council, began at 10 a.m. and was open to the public, with lei drop-off at the Kauai Veterans Center in Līhue before the service. Retired Gen. Mary Kay Hertog connected the day’s meaning to the broader sweep of American history, noting that Memorial Day comes less than two months before the 250th anniversary of the United States and calling attention to the cost carried by those buried in Hanapepe. The Hawaii Office of Veterans’ Services lists Kauai Veterans Cemetery as the county veterans cemetery for Kauai and says veterans cemeteries are intended to honor the fallen in a serene, beautiful setting befitting their sacrifice.

Younger participants carried much of the ceremony’s visible weight. Scouts continued a local poppy tradition that once centered on church graveyards in Kapaia and Līhue before shifting to the cemetery, while Girl Scouts of Hawaii and Scouting of America Troop 168 joined local families in placing fresh flower and ti leaf lei on headstones and around the flagpole. Waimea High School JROTC handled the formal protocol, presenting and retiring the colors and providing a saber unit for the ho‘okupu. Captain Brett Stevenson completed his lei ho‘okupu as the formation stood at attention.

Harley and Paula Rosa, along with the Sons of Kauai motorcycle ohana, watched over the grounds before the flags were taken down from the graves, another sign that the observance depends on volunteer labor as much as official ceremony. Norman Hashisaka, identified in prior Memorial Day coverage as Kauai’s eldest living veteran, was among those recognized, linking the service to generations that fought, returned and now rest in Hanapepe. The observance closed with Taps after the ho‘okupu, leaving the cemetery quiet but still ringed by families honoring the men and women whose service shaped the county’s memory.