DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Elinor Matsumoto, left, and Ally Vinoya separated plumeria flowers yesterday as part of the volunteer force who picked flowers at Koko Crater Botanical Gardens to make leis for the graves at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific for Memorial Day. Today, some of these same volunteers and others will string the flowers together into leis.
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Ceremonies honor veterans
Star-Bulletin staff
Veterans of America's wars will be honored at various ceremonies throughout the state this Memorial Day weekend.
At 8:30 a.m. Sunday at the National Cemetery of the Pacific, the Daijingu Temple will hold a memorial ceremony at Punchbowl's chapel.
It will be followed at 10 a.m. at Punchbowl's ceremonial plaza by a roll call of Purple Heart recipients, sponsored by the Pacific Island Asian Veterans Association.
Another Memorial Day ceremony will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday at the Waikiki Natatorium.
More than 2,000 Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will again participate in their annual "good turn" service project when they place leis and tiny American flags at the headstones of the more than 33,000 graves at the national cemetery.
The annual Vietnam War veterans candlelight ceremony will be held at 5:30 p.m. Sunday at Punchbowl with guest speakers to include retired Brig. Gen. Irwin Cockett, who served three tours in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot and commanded the Hawaii Army National Guard and headed the State Office of Veteran Services before he retired; and Anh Thu Lu, whose father was a three-star general in the South Vietnamese army.
The mayor's annual Memorial Day ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday at Punchbowl with Mayor Mufi Hannemann giving the keynote address.
Survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, will be honored at 9 a.m. Monday at the USS Arizona Memorial.
At 1 p.m., Gov. Linda Lingle will deliver remarks at the annual governor's Memorial Day service at the Memorial Plaza Monument at the Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery in Kaneohe.
At Schofield Barracks, Col. Matthew Margotta, commander of U.S. Garrison Hawaii, will be the guest speaker at a 10 a.m. ceremony that will be held at the post's cemetery.
Lingle has ordered state flags at all state and county buildings to be flown at half-staff on Memorial Day, Monday, from sunrise to noon, out of respect and at full staff from noon until sunset.
The governor's order is in conjunction with President Bush's order that all U.S. flags be flown at half-staff on Memorial Day from sunrise to noon.
Also on Memorial Day, Lingle will participate in the 10th annual floating lantern ceremony at Ala Moana Beach Park, beginning at 6 p.m. The floating of thousands of lanterns in a sunset ceremony known as Toro Nagashi is practiced in Japan to pay respect to ancestors and to comfort the spirits of the dead. The event is sponsored by Na Lei Aloha Foundation.