Volunteers plant flags in honor of veterans

Flags decorate the graves of veterans in honor of Memorial Day at Maple Leaf Cemetery in Oak Harbor. Kathy Reed/Whidbey Crosswind

It is a silent tribute that speaks volumes.

You have only to look at the flags scattered across the grounds of Maple Leaf Cemetery in Oak Harbor and Sunnyside Cemetery in Coupeville to grasp the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Volunteers from the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and its Ladies and Junior Ladies Auxiliaries, Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps and the community came out in force Saturday morning to place hundreds of flags at the graves of veterans.

“This is a pretty typical turnout,“ acknowledged Lenord Little, commander of the American Legion George Morris Post 129 in Oak Harbor.

In all, about 50 volunteers placed 560 flags at Maple Leaf. As Little handed out stacks of flags, he also handed out advice to the younger volunteers.

“I tell them as they go through the cemetery to look at the history that’s out there,” he said. “Young people have an idea what Memorial Day is about, but they don’t really understand it. Somewhere along the line it’s forgotten.”

Local American Legion post commander Lenord Little points out an area of Maple Leaf Cemetery where young volunteers can place flags on veterans’ graves. Kathy Reed/Whidbey Crosswind

“It saddens me, and I don’t really like cemeteries, but I like to help,” said 14-year-old Amanda Simpson, a member of NJROTC.

Kevin Prevost, 14, also a member of NJROTC, said he appreciated the activity and the meaning behind it.

“It’s good to give recognition to those who died in service to our country,” he said.

Members of Oak Harbor High School’s Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, from left, Kevin Prevost, 14, Amanda Simpson, 14, and Robert Walter, 16, look for graves upon which to place flags for Memorial Day at Maple Leaf Cemetery. Kathy Reed/ Whidbey Crosswind

Sherri Marsolek of Oak Harbor, had a more personal reason to lend a hand.

“My dad was a veteran,” she said. “I always like to try to help out that way.”

One of the challenges to placing the flags, according to Little, is that not all the grave stones are marked. He puts a removable sticker on some of the stones, but he said some veterans get missed inadvertently each year, despite the Legion‘s best efforts.

He walks the cemetery grounds after the volunteers leave each year to make sure the all veterans he knows of have a flag.

“Our good times come with remembering the price of freedom,” Little said. “Some paid a lot more than others. I make it a point they won’t be forgotten.”

According to Lenord Little, American Legion George Morris Post 129 commander, more than 94,000 flags have been sent overseas as part of the American Legion’s Overseas Graves Decoration Trust Fund. The fund provides U.S. flags, free of charge, to place at the grave sites of U.S. war dead buried in foreign lands, under the American Battle Monuments Commission’s administration.