Pasadena Memorial Day Ceremony to Reflect on 250 Years of American Service

Pasadena Memorial Park (Photo – Colorado Boulevard Newspaper). Insert: Lt. Col. Steven Uziel (Photo – City of Pasadena)

As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Pasadena’s annual Memorial Day Remembrance will carry added resonance this year. The City of Pasadena and the Pasadena Veterans Day Committee will host the ceremony on Monday, May 25, 2026, at 10:30 am in Memorial Park, inviting residents to reflect not only on local sacrifice but on the full arc of American service since the country’s founding.

By News Desk

The event comes in what historians mark as the 251st year of the United States military—an unbroken lineage of service stretching from the Revolutionary War to the present day. City officials say the milestone offers a rare opportunity to consider how generations of Americans have defended the ideals first articulated in 1776.

For Pasadena, that reflection begins at home. Each year, the community gathers to remember the 320 local men and women who lost their lives in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and the War on Terror. Their names, read aloud in Memorial Park, form the emotional center of the ceremony.

Program

This year’s program will include the Condor Squadron’s Missing Man Formation flyover, military funeral honors with a flag presentation to a Gold Star family, and a 21-gun salute by the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment. Cadets from the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps Pasadena Division and Blair High School’s Army JROTC will assist, symbolizing the passing of civic responsibility to a new generation.

Lt. Col. Steven Uziel, inspector-instructor for the 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marines, will deliver the keynote address. Chaplain Ted Saraf of American Legion Post 13 will offer the invocation and benediction.

City leaders say the goal is not only to honor the fallen but also to elevate Pasadena’s role in this national moment of remembrance. As one organizer put it, this year’s observance is an opportunity “to reflect on what America has endured, the good it still holds, and what it can continue to achieve when communities come together in gratitude.”

The ceremony is sponsored by the City of Pasadena’s Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department, Rose Bowl Stadium, Pasadena Management Association, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 446, the Martin Severance Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and American Legion Post 13.