MOSES LAKE — Communities across the Basin bowed their heads, removed their hats and paid tribute Monday to those who gave their lives in service to their country. 

“When peril threatened and their country called, they left their paths of peace to spring to arms to make their bodies a barricade against the nation's foes,” Ken Slininger, an Air Force veteran and American Legion member, read at the Memorial Day ceremony in Quincy. “The sorrow for the loved ones left behind could not dim the purpose in their souls. No horror of the field, sea or air could beat their courage down. They fought for us; for us they fell.” 

Memorial Day dates to the years just after the Civil War, according to an email from Jane Montaney, a past president of the American Legion Auxiliary in Ephrata. Originally, the date was May 30 every year, but in 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved the observance to the last Monday in May so it could be part of a three-day weekend, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Association. 

The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and other veterans organizations held ceremonies Monday in Moses Lake, Quincy, Ephrata, Soap Lake, Ritzville and Othello. Many included a color guard, a 21-gun salute and a bugler playing taps.  

The Soap Lake ceremony attracted 30-50 people, Montaney said, and the one at Ephrata a few more. The memorial at Quincy drew a crowd of about 200 people, and included songs by the Veterans Operation Creation Choir. 

At the Grant County International Airport, another ceremony honored a specific set of fallen: the 87 servicemen who died in a plane crash Dec. 20, 1952, at what was then Larson Air Force Base. The men, who had been serving in the Korean War, had won a lottery giving them a chance to go home for Christmas on a flight dubbed Operation Sleigh Ride. The crash was the deadliest air disaster in history up to that time. 

The deceased of Operation Sleigh Ride, 82 passengers and five crew members, are commemorated at the Fallen Heroes Memorial at Grant County International Airport. About 30 people gathered at the memorial.  

Million Air General Manager Mark Bonaudi read the names of the deceased one at a time as attendees came forward and deposited a rose at the memorial for each one. 

“Having made it out of the Korean Theater of Operations, out of combat, out of harm's way, these lives were tragically taken,” Bonaudi said. 

The president’s annual Memorial Day proclamation calls upon the people of the United States to pray for peace according to their individual faith, according to the National Cemetery Service. 

“In memory of those we honor today, may we pledge our own service and devotion,” prayed Chaplain Ken Holloway at the Quincy memorial. “And dear Lord, please lead us this day to the day where the guns no longer fire, granting us the peace for which so many others have died.” 

    Veteran Wendy Plemmons lays a wreath at a veteran’s grave as Art Semro American Legion Post President Sunshine Pray and Master of Ceremonies Mike Montaney look on at Monday’s Memorial Day ceremony in Ephrata.
  

    American Legion Honor Guard members fire the traditional 21-gun salute at the Memorial Day ceremony Monday in Ephrata.
  

    Bugler Greg Wright plays taps at the Memorial Day ceremony in Quincy Monday.
  

    Seven-year-old Micae Wood brings a rose to lay down at the Forgotten Heroes Memorial Monday morning in Moses Lake. Micae was there with her mom, grandmother and great-grandparents to honor the 87 servicemen who died in a plane crash at Larson Air Force base in 1952.
  

    Crosses and flags mark the graves of veterans at Valley View Cemetery in Soap Lake Monday.