JACKSONVILLE, Fla — It's jolting. The number seems so high.
For Memorial Day, a wall in Washington D.C. is filled with 645,000 red poppies.
John Bird, US Navy Vice Admiral (Retired) says it's a project of USAA with help from the American Legion and VFW. Disabled veterans worked to create many of the poppies.
Admiral Bird says, "Each poppy represents a young American killed in combat in service to our country since WW1."
Admiral Bird, who served on a ballistic missile submarine in Kings Bay, Georgia, says Memorial Day is a time to pause and remember sacrifice.
In his words, "Aren't we really blessed that young men and women raise their right hand and put their life on the line because, if they didn't, we wouldn't be the great country we are today. So just be thankful. You know, it's tragic. But we are the ones now responsible for giving meaning to their lives."
According to USAA, the Poppy Wall of Honor is 133 feet long and stands 8 1/2 feet tall.
Admiral Bird says the red poppy is an international symbol of respect and honor for the fallen. The history of the red poppy goes back to a WW1 poem written by a Canadian doctor, he says, who was in a cemetery in Belgium, when he was moved looking at the red poppies blowing in the wind among all the white crosses.
Then, in 1920, the poem was given more attention when Moina Michael pointed it out at a National American Legion conference. Michael was a professor and volunteer for the YMCA.
The Poppy Wall of Honor will be on display through May 29, 2022 between the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and Constitution Gardens Pond.
USAA is an insurance, banking and investment provider and retirement consultant to 13 million members of the U.S. military, according the USAA spokespeople.