Eugene mother says Memorial Day ceremony altered memorial’s meaning

Linda Gibson went to the Wall of Honor at Skinner Butte expecting a quiet place to sit with her son’s memory. Instead, she ran into a Veterans for Peace ceremony that honored all victims of war, including civilians, and said it changed the meaning of Memorial Day at the very monument where she comes to grieve.

Her son, Brennan Gibson, died in Iraq in 2006. The Thurston High School graduate’s name is engraved on the Skinner Butte memorial, and KEZI reported that Linda Gibson visits the site to remember him. Brennan Gibson is also buried at Willamette National Cemetery in Portland, but the Skinner Butte wall remains the local place where his family marks the day.

The memorial itself helps explain why the encounter carried such force. Travel Lane County describes the Wall of Honor as a 12-foot granite memorial wall inscribed with the names of 451 Lane County veterans killed from World War I through Operation Desert Storm. It was dedicated on May 30, 1996, and rededicated on September 11, 2010. At the base, the memorial carries an antiwar inscription that reads: “Many millions of men, women and children have perished in war. May there be an end to war.”

That dual message has long shaped the site’s role in Eugene. The memorial was originally created to honor Lane County soldiers who died from World War I through the first Gulf War, and later efforts led by Eric Enos, Nick Enos and Ken Brown expanded it so service members lost in Iraq and Afghanistan would also be recognized. A 2010 unveiling drew about 200 people and revealed the engraved names of 123 Oregon soldiers who died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, underscoring how deeply families and veterans have invested in the monument’s meaning.

Brennan Gibson’s life story is part of that history. Oregon State University records show he was a 1997 Thurston High School graduate who earned a 2003 bachelor’s degree in art, with a special focus on graphic design. OregonLive’s Oregon At War reported that he left for Iraq in October 2006 shortly after becoming a father and was killed when a roadside bomb struck his Humvee near Baghdad. Military memorial records list his death as December 10, 2006.

The dispute at Skinner Butte now raises practical questions for Eugene and Lane County: who approved the ceremony, what notice families received, and what rules govern the use of memorial space on solemn remembrance days. KEZI said it contacted Veterans for Peace but had not yet received a response, leaving the larger debate over public grief, protest and organized ceremony unresolved at the site where those meanings overlap.