Veterans Day on Oahu 2026: Ceremonies, Hours and Discounts

The Missouri has published a 2026 time, and the Wahiawa Lions Club parade is listed for 2026 on Hawaii Public Radio’s community calendar. For Punchbowl and the Natatorium, the table shows what is known, and the last column is 2025, not a promise for this year. The 2025 details come from KHON2 and Hawaii News Now; the Missouri’s own page gives its 2026 time.

Ask the organizers before you drive. The Oʻahu Veterans Council is at theovc.org and (808) 422-4000, and its events calendar showed nothing upcoming on October 25. For the Wahiawa parade, the listing names the parade chair, Lion Rene Mansho, at 808-291-6151.

The Battleship Missouri Memorial holds its annual Veterans Day Sunset Ceremony on Wednesday, November 11, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the ship’s fantail. It is free and open to the public, and no ticket is required. The 2026 theme is “America at 250: Honoring Generations of Service.” Speakers named on the Missouri’s page include retired Major General Suzanne Vares-Lum and John Alamodin, director of the State of Hawaiʻi Office of Veterans’ Services (Missouri).

The ship is on Ford Island, an active Navy base, so the public rides the free shuttle from the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. The Missouri says the final shuttle leaves the ship at 6 p.m., every vehicle must be out of the Visitor Center lot by 6:30 p.m., and parking fees at the Visitor Center are waived on Veterans Day. The ship’s regular hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., last admission at 3 (ticket page), so the ceremony runs after normal closing. RSVPs and questions go to Events@ussmissouri.org.

Last year’s notice (Spectrum News, Nov 5, 2025) asked guests to reach the shuttle stop before 4 p.m., kept bags off the shuttle (paid storage is near the Visitor Center entrance) and named summer whites, service equivalent or aloha attire. The 2026 page does not repeat those lines, so ask the Missouri before you rely on them.

The Oʻahu Veterans Council and the Oʻahu Veterans Center organize the official Veterans Day ceremony at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as Punchbowl, and have for more than 20 years (Council). The Council’s site lists no 2026 time or place yet.

Confirm the place as well as the time. In 2025 the ceremony was not held at Punchbowl. During the federal government shutdown, the Oʻahu Veterans Center hosted a smaller ceremony elsewhere, without the usual military bands, gun salute or flyover (KITV; Hawaii News Now). The 2026 location has not been announced.

The cemetery itself is open to visitors every day from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Veterans Day included. Its office is closed on federal holidays. It sits at 2177 Puowaina Drive, inside an extinct volcano roughly midway between the airport and the Waikīkī hotels; the VA’s directions use H-1 East to exit 21A (Pali Highway), then School Street, Lusitana Street and Puowaina Drive (VA).

On either side of the broad stairs, the Courts of the Missing carry the names of 18,095 Americans missing from World War II in the Pacific (not counting the southwest Pacific), 8,210 from the Korean War and 2,504 from the Vietnam War. War correspondent Ernie Pyle is buried in Section D, Site 109, and astronaut Ellison Onizuka in Section D, Site 1. Fresh cut flowers may be left in a metal container, not glass; no firearms are allowed on VA property.

The Pearl Harbor Visitor Center is open 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on every holiday except Thanksgiving, December 25 and January 1, so November 11 is a regular day (NPS). Entry to the memorial, visitor center and museums is free. The first USS Arizona Memorial program starts at 8 a.m. and the last boat leaves at 3:30 p.m.; the reservation mechanics are in our Pearl Harbor tickets guide.

Parking is the one line that differs by source. NPS lists $7 a day (NPS basic information), and the Missouri says Visitor Center parking fees are waived on Veterans Day. Read the sign at the gate.

The paid sites keep their posted hours: the Missouri 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Bowfin), and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (museum), whose pages name no holiday closure. See our visiting guide for bags and timing, the Passport guide for the combo ticket, getting there from Waikīkī, and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day for December 7.

A same-day order that fits the posted times:

• Before 3:30 p.m. The USS Arizona Memorial program. NPS asks you to arrive an hour before your reserved time.
• By 3 p.m. Last admission to the Missouri’s decks, if you want the ship as well.
• 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The Sunset Ceremony on the fantail.
• 6 p.m. Last shuttle from the ship. Be out of the Visitor Center lot by 6:30.

None of these places had posted a Veterans Day-only offer for 2026 on October 25. The table lists their standing rates. Who qualifies differs: some pages say active duty, some say military, and the Bishop Museum and zoo pages do not say whether veterans count. Bring a military ID and ask at the ticket desk.

The Pearl Harbor sites have run free pass days around the armed forces’ birthdays, such as the Navy’s on October 11 and 12, 2025 (Hawaii News Now), but their pages show no Veterans Day or Marine Corps free pass day for November. Restaurant and coffee-shop offers come from national chains, vary by store and are usually posted in the days just before.

November 11 is a federal holiday (OPM), and the City and County of Honolulu had not posted its 2026 notice on October 25.

Closed. The U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii in Waikīkī, whose page says it closes on federal holidays (museum). The Punchbowl cemetery office, though not the grounds. In the City’s 2025 notice, City offices, satellite city halls and driver licensing centers were closed and People’s Open Markets were not held.

Open. The Pearl Harbor sites above. The Bishop Museum, open daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed only on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s (Bishop Museum). The Honolulu Museum of Art, open Wednesday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed only on New Year’s Day, July 4, Thanksgiving and Christmas (HoMA). In 2025 the City also kept parks, botanical gardens and the Honolulu Zoo open, ran TheBus on a city holiday schedule and ran Skyline on its normal schedule. For the rest of the island, see things to do in Oʻahu.

Parking in Waikīkī. In 2025 on-street parking was free except on Kalākaua Avenue along Queen Kapiʻolani Park, in metered lots and on listed streets. Our Waikiki parking guide covers the lots.