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In Memory & In Honor at the Women's Memorial
Rose Petal Tradition is One Way Servicewomen are Remembered
Every year on Memorial Day, military women, veterans, and community members gather at the Women In Military Service For America Memorial to honor and remember servicewomen, servicemen and veterans. On May 26, 2008, they gathered again to help fulfill the primary mission of the Women's Memorial—honoring all women who have served in America's defense, past and present.
As part of that mission, the Women's Memorial Foundation pays special tribute to American servicewomen who have given their lives in service in many ways. This includes the Memorial Day service when the Foundation invites speakers, guests, and members of the public to scatter rose petals in the Memorial's reflecting pool in honor and memory of servicemembers and veterans, who have died in the last year. Since the beginning of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom (OEF/OIF), the rose petal tradition has included the reading of the names of women who died as a result of service in OEF/OIF since the previous Memorial Day. This year, 22 names were read. In all, rose petals have floated in memory of each of the 110 servicewomen who have died in OIF and OEF. To read the names of these fallen servicewomen, visit a special In Memoriam Honor Roll on the Women's Memorial Web site.
Memorial Day guests and members of the public joined representatives of the Gold Star Wives and Alexandria American Legion Auxiliary Unit 24 in placing rose petals into the Women's Memorial reflecting pool in honor or memory of a servicemember. Photos by Donna Parry.
Honoring and remembering servicewomen who have died is part of the important record of women's service that the Memorial preserves for this and future generations.
Tributes extend beyond the rose petals each Memorial Day, however. The Memorial Foundation completes a registration for each servicewoman who dies in OIF and OEF, guaranteeing that her story has a permanent place in American history. These registrations are sponsored by long-time Memorial supporter Alice Booher and the Women's Overseas Service League. The registrations are available for visitors to view in the Memorial's Hall of Honor.
Additionally, anyone can pay tribute to any servicewoman by sponsoring a registration, and making a donation, in memory or in honor of an individual servicewoman by visiting the Women's Memorial Web site and completing an online registration form.
Virginia Air National Guard MSgt. Karen A. Marshall scattered rose petals into the Women's Memorial reflecting pool on Memorial Day . Photos by Donna Parry.
Groups can also conduct "Love Offering" donation drives that honor a fallen servicewomen. Initiated in 2005 by the National Association of State Women
Veteran Coordinators (NASWVC), the Love Offering program has become a yearly NASWVC event. During a Love Offering, participants make donations in special envelopes that bear the rank, name, service, age and hometown of a fallen US servicewomen. Donations are forwarded to the Foundation and recorded in each woman's Memorial record.The Memorial Foundation offers many other ways for individuals and groups to honor servicewomen past and present. Learn more about how you can honor or remember a servicewoman, by visiting the donation page of the Foundation's Web site.
(July 2008)
