Memorial Day 2026: The Names We Carry

By Shawn Paul Cosner, Founder & President

Today is not a holiday. It is a debt.

Memorial Day belongs to the ones who did not come home, and to the families who have carried that empty chair to every dinner since. In West Virginia, that debt runs deeper than most. Our hills have sent sons and daughters to every American war, in numbers far beyond our size, and our cemeteries hold the proof. My own family has more than 300 years of combined service to this country. Most West Virginia families can tell you a version of that same story.

There is a second roll of names we carry now, one that grows in peacetime. Since 2001, more than 1,400 West Virginia veterans have died by suicide. They survived the war and lost the homecoming. We do not say that to take anything from the fallen we honor today. We say it because the same promise covers both: that this country, and this state, will not forget the people who stood for it.

So here is what we ask of you today, beyond the flags and the silence at 3 p.m. Visit a grave. Say a name out loud. And then check on a living veteran, the one you have been meaning to call. The conversation you have today might be the reason there is one less name to carry next year.

The Eight Fifty Committee was named for the only 850 Revolutionary War veterans who ever received the pensions they were promised. We exist so that the promise gets kept this time. Today we remember the ones it can no longer reach.

If you or a veteran you know is struggling: dial 988, then press 1. Someone who understands is on the line right now.