~ from Knoxville National Cemetery, Wreaths Across America, Dept. of Veterans Affairs
EDIT: The correct date for the WAA pick up is January 17, 2026. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused. – Richard A. Muñoz, Director, Mountain Home National Cemetery. The date in the post below has been adjusted.
On Saturday, January 17, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. the Knoxville National Cemetery, located at 939 Tyson St., will be retiring the 8,431 wreaths laid on our nation’s heroes’ final resting places back on December 13, 2026.
The Knoxville National Cemetery is a place of peace, honor and remembrance. On these hallowed grounds, there remain thousands of our nation’s heroes and loved ones. All of them are unique. Honoring them is exactly what we accomplished on December 13, 2025. We honored them with our time, love and a beloved symbol of the Winter Holiday season, a wreath. Wreaths Across America began as a figurative seed with a young Morrill Worcester. When Morrill was 12 years old, he visited Washington, D.C., spending time visiting Arlington National Cemetery.
That single visit left an indelible and lasting impression on him. In 1992, as the owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine, his company found itself with a surplus of wreaths. Reflecting on his visit to Arlington National Cemetery, Morrill reached out to Senator Olympia Snowe with an idea. Working together, Morrill and Senator Snowe were able to place an unknown number of wreaths in one of Arlington’s older sections.
The VA operates 155 national cemeteries and 34 soldiers’ lots and monument sites in 44 states and Puerto Rico. More than 5 million Americans, including veterans of every war and conflict, are buried in VA cemeteries. Fulfilling President Lincoln’s call “to care for him who shall have borne the battle,” VA also provides headstones, markers or medallions for veterans buried in state and territorial veterans cemeteries or interred in private cemeteries.
