Collins Delivers the VA's Memorial Day 2026 Video Message, May 26, 2026
May 26, 2026 · U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs · 0:01:41
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
VA Secretary Doug Collins delivered the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Memorial Day 2026 video message, in the department’s upload of the address, published May 26, 2026. Collins spoke as the official he is, in his own framing: the Secretary who has the privilege of taking care of veterans every day — through the hospital system, through the disability claims process, and, as he put it, in laying them to rest in the department’s cemeteries. Memorial Day, he said, is a day to remember those who did not come home, who gave what he called the last full measure of devotion.
His ask of the audience was a moment’s attention amid the holiday: to remember those for whom someone is missing at the table — lost 50 or 60 years ago, 20 years ago, or only a few months ago — and to remember that the freedoms enjoyed on the day were given by those who did not return. He closed with a blessing for the audience and for the country.
Why it matters
The Memorial Day message is the ceremonial register of the Collins secretaryship: the chaplain’s voice rather than the reformer’s, from the Secretary responsible not only for VA hospitals and benefits but for the national cemeteries where the day’s meaning is kept. It stands on this site as the department’s official observance in his words.
Sources: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “Secretary of Veterans Affairs Doug Collins | Memorial Day 2026 Video Message” (official upload, May 26, 2026, embedded above; message as delivered by Secretary Collins).
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