Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial

Was just OK nothing special. Pretty small. Homeless people laying near park makes it sketch. The memorial thing was cute but small. If you need something to entertain you or your child for 15 min go here.

Thanksgiving is about gratitude not turkey dinners, and Memorial Day is about remembrance not a Macy’s sale. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with the turkeys or the sales, it’s just that WHY we celebrate should not be buried under HOW we celebrate.
I don’t consider myself very patriotic, but I decided to come to the Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial for their Memorial Day ceremony this year. It’s a small gesture, but I hope that the great turnout provides some comfort to the families of fallen soldiers that were present.
As the only memorial in the nation dedicated to service men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, Northwood has 5 pillars, engraved with the names of those who died between October 2001 to March 2014, all 6,786 of them. The numbers are still rising, and new names will be added.
As tribute to our most recent and still ongoing war, the memorial is simple yet chilling. White names on black granite followed by the age of death, and the ages vary– 47, 35, 19… Unlike memorials of long-​gone battles, this one comes with a stark reminder– we are still at war.
On most days, I don’t even remember we’re still fighting, and I have that luxury because someone else is doing it in my stead. We can argue over whether we should be at war at all, but there’s no question that those who sacrificed for it should be remembered.
Ceremonies are held yearly on Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day, and I hope to make it to the Veteran’s Day event this year on November 9^th. Northwood Gratitude and Honor Memorial is a beautiful addition to Irvine, in every possible meaning of the word.

This is the nation’s first memorial dedicated exclusively to honoring all the American service members who have died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was started by local citizens as an annual temporary memorial in March 2003. The permanent memorial was dedicated on November 14, 2010 and is updated several times during the year to include those who recently died.
It is an open air memorial in the Northwood Community Park (aka Castle Park) at the corner of Bryan Avenue and Yale Avenue. Its five sentinel monuments have black granite panels with the engraved names of the fallen in chronological order by the date of their death in the conflicts. It is open around the clock and is lighted at night.
Free name rubbings are available to families and friends of the fallen. Please stop by the Northwood Community Park Center to get the materials to do the rubbings yourself, or to have one or more done for you go the GoldStar page of
and complete the request form.