SEQUIM — The Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley will mark the opening of an ongoing historical display of military memorabilia with a flag ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday.
The flag ceremony will be at 1 p.m. at the MAC Exhibit Center, 175 W. Cedar St.
Veterans from all branches of military service are invited to attend as honored guests.
The exhibit will focus on military history in relation to the people of the Sequim-Dungeness Valley.
It will include historical photographs, recruitment posters, letters to and from military personnel, and uniforms, equipment and regalia representing different United States military service branches over the past 100 years.
“I’m thrilled to be working on an exhibit that not only honors our uniformed citizens, but also those who worked behind the scenes,” said MAC history exhibits coordinator Lyn Fiveash.
“We have been receiving tremendous feedback and several item donations while preparing for this exhibit, and it’s great to have the support of people who were a part of that history and are willing to share their experiences.”
Pearl Harbor
Several artifacts from military veterans and their families are on loan for the exhibit, including the Purple Heart medal posthumously awarded to Marlyn Wayne Nelson of Sequim, who was serving aboard the battleship USS California during the attack on Pearl Harbor and died of his injuries four days later.
The medal, along with several photos of Nelson and letters he wrote to family members in Sequim in the fall of 1941, were loaned by Nelson’s grandnephew, Norm Dawley.
Among the photographs is one of the entire USS California crew taken aboard the ship while docked at Bremerton in October 1940.
Marlyn Nelson County Park at Port Williams was named in his honor in 1944.
The MAC Exhibit Center is now operating on its expanded summer hours of 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, except the last Sunday of each month.
For more information, phone the MAC Exhibit Center at 360-683-8110 or visit the MAC website at www.macsequim.org.
