COEUR d’ALENE— Kootenai County is home to around 20,000 veterans. 20,000 men and women that made it home from conflict, danger and destruction.

There are countless others who didn’t. 

On Monday, North Idaho spent Memorial Day morning gathered to remember those who gave their lives in service. 

“It is about remembering those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It is a beautiful day to celebrate with friends and family, and I hope people take the time to remember,” said Krystal Skinkle, who was the keynote speaker at the Veterans Memorial at McEuen Park.

Young and old alike stood in silence and respect as buglers played taps and veterans saluted the flag.  

Art Macomber, a local, sang the song, “Can’t you hear the call?” at the event and was happy to be able to perform. 

“I hope people like the song. It is about why men go to war,” he said, “Every generation has to step up. Freedom is rare, it is so rare in the world.”

Around 100 people attended the celebration at the Veterans Memorial, and the event was put on by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 889.

Bob and Cathye Clayton attended the celebration at the Coeur d’Alene Memorial Gardens and were glad they could be there. 

“Remembering the sacrifice that somebody made that we sometimes take for granted,” they replied when asked if they attended the event for any specific reason. 

The Claytons stood at a gravesite for several minutes in silence and remembrance.

Miniature flags dotted the graves of late veterans. Visitors laid coins and flowers on graves, some even brought small garden tools to make sure the grave they visited was in perfect shape.

Wes Seyfert, a retired Navy corpsman, attended the Memorial Gardens event and was starkly reminded of one of the few men he really remembered from his time of service during the Vietnam War. 

Seyfert explained that as a corpsman he spent little of his time with the same group of men, seeing hundreds of injured soldiers during his time there. He said the only man he truly remembered and served as a reminder of the past was a man named Lyle Babbit. 

Seyfert recalls Babbit being from Coeur d’Alene and thought it was kismet that he had ended up here himself. Seyfert doesn’t currently know the whereabouts of Babbit but smiled as he thought of him. 

Seyfert also spoke about being forgotten. When he returned home, people had no idea where he had been, or what he had been doing, but especially what he had seen. 

“‘Did you just get back from school?’ they would ask me,” he said.

Seyfert knows what it is like to be forgotten but expressed that something different happened to those who died, and that was the reason he attended the event. 

“It’s to honor those who didn’t make it home. The people who died, disappeared, no one deserves that,” he said.

Over 150 people attended the Coeur d’Alene Memorial Gardens event that was put on the Pappy Boyington Marine Corps League Detachment 966.

    Janice John and Wes Seyfert sit and eat their lunch while admiring the beauty of the Memorial Gardens.
  

    Thinh Kieu and his son, Asa Kieu, crouch near a grave and pay their respects.
  

    Darla Fletcher and Mike Quinn stand behind Tim Mcnamara while he plays taps on the bugle.
  

    Wendy and Carl Eaton pay their respects to a grave in the Memorial Gardens.
  

    Bob and Cathye Clayton get emotional as they visit the grave of someone at the Memorial Gardens.