Poppy Wall of Honor Will Stay Virtual for Memorial Day 2021

The USAA Poppy Wall of Honor had all the signs of becoming a Memorial Day tradition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., before the COVID-19 pandemic derailed plans for 2020.

The Poppy Wall of Honor went virtual last year and will continue to exist online for 2021. Americans can honor and remember our fallen warriors at poppyinmemory.com. Visitors can dedicate a virtual poppy to anyone who died in a military conflict, a number that included 645,000 service members since the beginning of World War I.

Insurance and banking company USAA joined with the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars to create the physical installation and then move the experience online when circumstances required a new approach last year.

Poppies have become a symbol for remembering fallen soldiers around the world. After seeing the hardy flower bloom on a battlefield littered with shrapnel and chemical weapons waste during the second Battle of Ypres in 1915, Canadian soldier Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote the poem “In Flanders Fields” to commemorate a fallen friend.

The poem became a classic and inspired Allied countries around the world to adopt the flower as a symbol of tribute to war casualties. The poppy never has been as popular a symbol in the United States as it is in the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, but the Poppy Wall of Honor aims to change that.

The website includes a comprehensive history of the poppy’s use of a symbol and many excellent images of the physical wall that was first installed temporarily on the National Mall in 2018 and returned for a second run in 2019. If all goes well in 2021, look for a return of the physical wall for Memorial Day 2022.

USAA is promoting use of the hashtag #HonorThroughAction on social media so that everyone can share what Memorial Day means to them. Snapchat users can use the augmented reality Snapchat Lens feature to visit the Poppy Wall of Honor and dedicate a poppy from the app.

Keep Up With the Best in Military Entertainment

Whether you're looking for news and entertainment, thinking of joining the military or keeping up with military life and benefits, Military.com has you covered. Subscribe to the Military.com newsletter to have military news, updates and resources delivered straight to your inbox.