The annual Memorial Day Observance at Mountain Home National Cemetery at the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Center will be held Monday, May 26, at 11 a.m.
The ceremony will be across from the gazebo on Dogwood Avenue at the VA Center.
The featured speaker will be Brigadier Gen. Isaac G. Osborne Jr., Assistant Adjutant General of the Tennessee Army National Guard. Special music will be presented by the Johnson City Community Concert Band.
The public is invited to join local Scouts, ROTC cadets, and Civil Air Patrol Cadets in placing flags on the more than 13,500 graves at the Mountain Home National Cemetery Saturday, May 24. To participate, meet at the gazebo at 11:30 a.m. and join the memorial march to the cemetery.
Memorial Day is a federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. soldiers who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union and Confederate soldiers following the American Civil War, it was extended after World War I to honor Americans who have died in all wars.
On June 28, 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Holidays Bill, which moved three holidays from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend, among them Memorial Day. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May.