Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Posts all across the nation are discontinuing crosses on veterans’ graves on Memorial Day, due to less membership in our Posts. They are still putting the American flags up. For example, in Kansas City, four years ago, they had to stop because there were up to 5,000 crosses and not enough members to do them. Craig stopped three years ago.
Meeker VFW Post 5843 has been giving a free one-year membership to our young veterans returning from war to our community, to build up our membership. So let us know when your service person comes home.
At Highland Cemetery, there are 600 veterans to mark. Our posts are way down in membership and the VFW and American Legion have voted to not do any more crosses, but we will always do the American Flags and this year we are putting a U.S. Veteran weather-resistant round sticker, about the size of a quarter, on all the veterans’ headstones.
This has been an agonizing decision for both posts to make. Years ago we used to have all kinds of volunteers from the community. Even though for the last five years we have asked in the paper for volunteers, we have had to ask the trustees at the jail to help us. This article will probably generate volunteers, but we have orders from national, when the posts can no longer keep up with the crosses by their own members, we have permission to just do the flags.
I hope the community understands our decision. This year Teresa Anderson has 16 junior high students and there is a church group that will help put the stickers and flags on Saturday May 23rd at 9 a.m. at Highland Cemetery
On May 25, Memorial Day ceremonies will start at 10 a.m. at the city park bridge with Frank Cooley saying the prayer and Dick Moyer throwing a wreath into the White River, followed by taps and a 21-gun salute. Then we go to the cemetery’s veterans’ memorial, where Dick Moyer will place the wreath followed by taps and a 21-gun salute.
Submitted by:
Tom Kilduff, VFW Commander
