The good stuff...

[MaScout]

Our troop turned out in droves this morning at 0600 to help the American Legion put flags and markers at the gravesites of the veterans buried in our local cemetery. No-one complained and they all seemed to enjoy assisting in this way and honoring our veterans.

 

Thank you to ALL the service men and women out there who have helped keep our country free...free in speech, religion, on & on. I am humbled.

 

Ma

[BrentAllen]

Amen, Ma.

Our Pack participated in the annual flag placing at Marietta National Cemetery on Saturday. Over 18,000 grave sites of our heros received an honoring salute and flag from a Scout. We had so many Scouts there from across the Council, it took less than an hour to cover the cemetery with flags. One of my Bears had the special privilege and honor of placing the flag on the grave of one of his ancestors, who fought in WWI. What a nice event.

[LongHaul]

I went out Saturday as a guest with a troop and the American Legion to put up the flags so the graves would be marked for the ceremonies held this morning. I normally do my scouting with my own troop but am out of town at the moment. Back home we have a list and a cemetery map which identifies the veterans graves, here we went grave by grave and replaced old flags and marked those which had service reference on the head stone. I saw several government head stones with out rank and branch of service reference which we were asked not to mark (by the Legion). Do the rest of you have lists of those graves to identify or is it only those who chose to include military reference, that get recognized?

LongHaul

 

[cubbingcarol]

Longhaul, here in our cemetery I have seen the types of markers you are describing (or at least I think they may be the same) and they are the spouses or significant loved ones of a military service person. The family has chosen their's to match that of the veteran. We do not place flags on their graves either.

BTW we do not have a map with locations marked, our map is marked only with the sections. My husband and I have obtained burial records from a lady and have placed (or replaced) white poles to put the flags in. Over 800 veterans, even one who had served in not only the Civil War but had first served in the Texas Revolutionary War as a surgeon, how cool is that?!

 

Carol

[LongHaul]

You indeed know which type of marker I'm talking about but in my cemetary back near Chicago we have veterans who have chosen not to include rank and branch on their memorial. They have the same marker as their spouse but we have a list of the verterans. Some have head stones from private companies which if you didn't know they were veterans you would pass them by. I guess I never really thought about it before because I'm so used to getting the flags from the American Legion for our family veterans and when the troop does the placements as I said we have a list of names with section and row designations which the American Legion or the VFW keep updating.

LongHaul

[BrentAllen]

 

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Scouts pay homage to America's fallen

Chris Reinolds - Staff

Sunday, May 28, 2006

 

Generations of Boy Scouts paid tribute to fallen soldiers Saturday by planting 18,000 American flags on graves at the Marietta National Cemetery.

 

About 1,500 Scouts and volunteers attended, a turnout that shocked organizer Bob Cato. In years past, the event, which is held the weekend of Memorial Day, has attracted about 700 Scouts and volunteers.

 

Cato said better promotion probably caused the improved turnout, which more recently has included Girl Scouts as participants.

 

"We did it in record time," said Cato, a staff trainer in the Foothills District of the Atlanta Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Every grave had a flag by 10 a.m.

 

Scouts set each flag vertically 6 inches from the gravestone, stepped back and saluted the flag and the grave.

 

The Boy Scouts have been planting flags for Memorial Day weekend for 14 years at the Marietta cemetery. The Scouts, in their uniforms, received community service patches for their effort.

 

East Cobb County Scouts Matt Thompson and Dillon Eoff rested under a tree after planting about 35 flags each. Matt, 15, said he tries to attend the flag-planting every year. And Dillon, 12, said he has planted flags each Memorial Day since he was a Cub Scout.

 

"Each flag you lay down, you know you're honoring a dead soldier. It gives you a good feeling to put the flag in front of the graves," Dillon said. "It's to celebrate all these people who died for our country."

 

Al Weatherly, a board member of the Atlanta area Boy Scouts, noted that the Scouts also will participate in Monday's Memorial Day event at the cemetery. The ceremony will feature guest speaker Lt. Michael E. Thornton, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the military from the Vietnam War through Desert Storm.

 

The cemetery, which opened in 1866, is on Washington Avenue off Ga. 120, a few blocks east of the Marietta Square.

 

The Scouts have been a part of the National Memorial Day Ceremony since 1946, Weatherly said.

 

Troop leader Al Friel of east Cobb has brought his Scouts to the cemetery for 14 years. This year, 30 boys, ages 11 to 16, planted flags.

 

"Like all of us, we lost a lot of friends who weren't much older than these guys," said Friel, who was in the Navy in World War II. "We want to get the message to the boys about the importance of remembering comrades who've passed."

 

Nikole Brand, 11, is a Girl Scout in east Cobb who came to the event along with her family. Both of her brothers are Scouts, and her mother is a Cub Scout leader.

 

Nikole said she comes "to show reverence and respect to these soldiers who died here and show them we remember them and thank them for the freedom they gave us."