Tribe holding annual Memorial Day event on May 26

The Veterans Special Event Board will be sponsoring the annual Memorial Day ceremony held at the West Valley Veterans Memorial on the Tribal campus beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, May 26.

A meal will be served in the Tribal Community Center beginning at noon.

Veterans Special Event Board Chairman Steve Bobb Sr., a Vietnam-era Marine Corps veteran, will be the master of ceremonies and provide the invocation.

Grand Ronde drummers will perform a memorial song before Tribal member Jolanda Catabay sings the national anthem. Grand Ronde Royalty will perform "The Lord's Prayer," as well.

Confirmed speakers will include Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno, also a Vietnam-era Marine Corps veteran, Oregon Veterans' Services Administrator Eric Belt and Gunny Brandon, also a Marine Corps veteran.

Twelve new names being placed on the Veterans Memorial will be read aloud by their service branch. Alton Butler will read the names of Marine Corps veterans, Eugene LaBonte will read the Navy veterans, Bud White will read the names of those who served in the Air Force and Tribal Council member June Sherer will read the names of those who served in the Army.

The new names bring the total number of men and women honored on the memorial to 2,283.

Bud Abbott will read a poem and a medley of taps and "Amazing Grace" will be played by trumpeter Bob Thornton and Jan Looking Wolf Reibach, head of the Tribe's Land & Culture Department and a multiple winner of Native American Music Awards as a flutist. Reibach is an Army veteran, as well.

The Grand Ronde Honor Guard also will post and retire the colors.