Eastern Iowa Memorial Day Events Draw Crowds May 25 — What Is Memorial Day Celebrating
Eastern Iowa marked what is memorial day celebrating with ceremonies, parades, flag placements and museum programming scheduled for Monday, May 25. The day’s observances ranged from an 8 a.m. ceremony at the Iowa Veteran’s Cemetery to a noon parade in Dubuque and a morning program at Cedar Memorial.
Iowa Veteran’s Cemetery Ceremony
The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs scheduled its cemetery ceremony to start at 8 a.m., with Col. Eric Soults listed as keynote speaker. The event was set to be broadcast statewide on the IDVA Facebook Page and later posted on the IDVA YouTube Channel, giving people who could not attend in person a way to follow the service.
Volunteers were also scheduled to set out flags at the Iowa Veterans Cemetery on May 22 starting at 9 a.m., weather permitting. That work came before the holiday ceremony and placed the cemetery observance inside a wider week of Memorial Day preparations.
Cedar Memorial and Veterans Memorial Building
Cedar Memorial planned a tribute ceremony at 11 a.m. with patriotic music and a keynote address. Honoring Our Veterans was scheduled to place 8,000 American flags on the graves of veterans buried there on Saturday, May 23, beginning at 8 a.m. at the Family Center and Library, with the flags set for removal at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26.
The Metro Veterans Council was hosting a separate program inside the Veterans Memorial Building at 10:30 a.m. The observance was set to include an opening prayer, live patriotic music, presentation of the Colors, a guest speaker, a volley salute and more.
Coralville, Waterloo and Dubuque
The Johnson County Military Affairs Association and the American Legion Post 17 and Auxiliary planned a series of ceremonies, while the Coralville American Legion scheduled Memorial Day services at two locations on Monday. In Waterloo, the parade was set to begin at 10 a.m. at the Waterloo Veterans Memorial, putting another public observance on the holiday calendar.
In Dubuque, the Memorial Day parade was scheduled to start at noon and move from Greyhound Park Drive to Admiral Sheehy Drive before a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Plaza. The Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum at 503 South Street was set to open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., offer free admission to veterans on Memorial Day, and show a Pearl Harbor documentary at 11:45 a.m. and 1:45 a.m.; active duty service members and up to five family members were also scheduled to receive free admission through Labor Day.
Iowa Veterans Home Program
The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs also scheduled a ceremony at the Iowa Veterans Home for 10:30 a.m., with Lt. Col. Jodi Marti set to speak. Like the cemetery service, that observance was scheduled for statewide streaming on the IDVA Facebook Page and later availability on the IDVA YouTube Channel.
At Camp Dodge, the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum planned a free military-style breakfast and live entertainment from 5 a.m. to noon. The full lineup across eastern Iowa showed one holiday built around public ceremonies, flag work and museum access rather than a single central event.
