Members of the 364th ESC and 79th SSC support local memorial ceremony in honor of Skagit County residents killed in WWI

Photo By Maj. Marvin Baker | During a memorial ceremony, Brig. Gen. Kurt Hardin leads a roll call remembering the names of 50 Skagit County men who died in World War I.  

MOUNT VERNON, WA, UNITED STATES

05.26.2015

Story by Capt. Marvin Baker 

364th Expeditionary Sustainment Command

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. - Brig. Gen. Kurt Hardin, deputy commanding general of the 79th Sustainment Support Command and Olympia, Washington, resident, along with members in the Marysville based 364th Sustainment Command's, (Expeditionary) Survivor Outreach Services and community relations offices supported a living tribute to the memory of 50 military men from Skagit County who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom in the Great War during a memorial ceremony in Mount Vernon May 26.

During the ceremony, Hardin led a roll call remembering the names of 50 Skagit County men who died in World War I.

The ceremony also marked a renewed effort to encourage residents who live along Memorial Highway in Mount Vernon to plant one elm tree for every local service member who died during WWI.

"What the community is doing to replace those trees is just impressive," Hardin said after the ceremony. "It's a grassroots effort."

For the past several years, members of the Washington State University Skagit County Master Gardener Foundation and other community members led the memorial restoration project hoping to replant nearly 50 elms that helped the citizens remember their community members who died during WWI.

In 1931, Memorial Highway was dedicated in honor of the 50 who died during the war. The original dedication included the planting of 50 elm trees. Elms are known to live for 100 years. However, many of the memorial trees were removed in the 1950s to accommodate the expansion of the roadway.

Now, only two elms from the original dedication remain in Mount Vernon. Community members recently planted three Princeton Elms along Memorial Highway near the WSU Research Center in Mount Vernon.

The ceremony concluded with a flyover by retired military service members in two vintage WWI bi-wing airplanes.

• Date Taken: 05.26.2015
• Date Posted: 05.27.2015 15:33
• Story ID: 164709
• Location: MOUNT VERNON, WA, US