BOZEMAN — Veterans and community members gathered at Sunset Hills Cemetery on Veterans Day to honor those who served.
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The ceremony included speeches, a flyover, and the playing of Taps.
Among those in attendance was Jesse Albrecht, a veteran who deployed to Iraq as a medic in 2003. Albrecht said returning home and reconciling his military service with his identity has been a journey.
“I’ve been out for 20 years, and how to kind of reconcile my service with who I am,” Albrecht said.
The ceremony was led by American Legion Commander Len Albright, who is also part of the Veterans Alliance of Southwest Montana.
The organization focuses on supporting veterans and their families, including creating opportunities to honor those who have died.
For the past two decades, the alliance has worked to establish a dedicated memorial space at Sunset Hills Cemetery, allowing families to remember loved ones closer to home.
“So they don't have to travel so far to visit their loved ones because, you know what happens when they get too far away, you stop going,” Albright said.
Two columbaria, structures designed to house cremated remains, were constructed at the cemetery in 2024.
With a high concentration of veterans in the region, the alliance is now working to expand the memorial space.
At Tuesday's Bozeman City Commission meeting, Albright and members of the alliance presented the city with a check for more than $100,000 toward the project.
The plans include four additional columbaria and a shelter where families can gather for services.
Albright said the shelter will also provide protection from the elements during military honors and memorial services.
“We’ve done honor guards in 30 below (weather), and it's not fun,” Albright said.
For Albrecht, having a place to honor veterans in the community is important.
“Not having to go to some distant place and having it in our own community,” he said.
The expansion is intended to give veterans and their families a lasting place to remember those who served.
Albright says concrete will hopefully begin pouring in the spring of 2027.
