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So.... what are your children doing this weekend?


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Awesome clip.  The Troop (along with the two Cub Scout Packs and two other troops) are marching in the Memorial Day parade.  Last Tuesday, the boys put American Flags on the graves of veterans in our CO's cemetery.  

 

I've always thought that it would be cool to have a public campfire where the boys do a ceremony for retiring flags (we do it on campouts, but never as a public demonstration).  That would be something interesting to do on Sunday night before memorial day.

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That's exactly what we did last Tuesday, along with a meeting with all the parents in the troop/Web den that were veterans speaking about their service.  We're in the parade and we will stay for the ceremony at the cemetery.  Last Saturday the boys went to the cemetery and cleaned up the scatter garden getting it ready for this weekend and we spent another hour and a half visiting all my friends and listening to stories about their lives.  I do extensive research on all the veterans of the 1800's buried in the county.  We even have a sergeant who fought the Mexicans for Texas Independence.  That one impressed the boys the most.  They were Confederate soldiers, a soldier who was in the audience and saw Booth jump to the stage, the 12 year old drummer boys who was fighting at Shiloh and Vicksburg, War of 1812 veterans, Indian fighters, 2 star general, soldiers who were part of the Eagle Regiment who had Old Abe as their mascot, wife of a man killed at Little Big Horn, commanding officer on board the USS Maine the night it sank in the harbor in Havana, Cuba, all there for a interesting spur of the moment Pre-Memorial Day walk in the cemetery.

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Love the video. THANK YOU!

 

Both the  pack and troop I'm with  assisted the American Legion with setting up flags at the cemetery today.  On Monday both units will be taking them down.

 

As for my hoodlums, on Monday they will be going to the Memorial Day Service.

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We got the 3000 flags placed one evening earlier this week. I think we had 15 units (packs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts) and 150 youth.

 

When riding the bus by there in the evening I tell my fellow passengers, "Those flags? our scouts."

 

Just saw a picture of my nephew doing the same with his troop!

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We got the 3000 flags placed one evening earlier this week. I think we had 15 units (packs, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts) and 150 youth.

 

When riding the bus by there in the evening I tell my fellow passengers, "Those flags? our scouts."

 

Just saw a picture of my nephew doing the same with his troop!

 

We do the same thing. We put out around 200 flags (5'x3' flags on 8' poles). Project has grown so much over the last 6 years. The neighborhood loves it...and so do the boys.

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Late to the party, but we don't reserve this for Memorial Day at our house. I lost a friend in the service, and my children are well aware. And their ancestry is full of such sacrifice and they know the stories. They have visited their great-grandfather (and great-grandmother) at Arlington National Cemetery and they know his story, too.  On Memorial Day itself, we don't do so much although they have seen me pray for Chris. But it's no stranger to our house.

 

Our scout units participate in the parades, but we try to make it more personal. My oldest son's troop had a veteran of Patton's Third Armored Division in the WWII ETO come speak once, as well as Gene Cernan. My youngest son's troop just had a speaker who was a SEAL Team Sniper in Iraq and some other places he won't talk about. Last year we had a local celebrity and neighbor come speak about his experiences as a Marine Corps sniper in Viet Nam.  And when our Cub Scout Pack had a sleepover on the USS Cavalla, the XO of the boat during WWII lived in our neighborhood and came out to talk with the boys while we were on the boat. That really impressed them when they saw his nameplate on the bunk right before he spoke to them.

 

But its always good to see this celebrated in a civic context like this. Thank you for the video.

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Wasn't allowed to post this till now... we got involved in with your memorial day this year. There are American Girl Scout at the air base at Alconbury and each year they clean up headstones at the American military cemetery just outside Cambridge in advance of Memorial Day. This year we got asked if we would help them out. Photos here.

 

We weren't allowed to put anything up until now as the local TV news came down to film it and asked us to embago photos until the piece had gone out!

 

That's Awesome!  Thank You so much

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@@Cambridgeskip, Thank you for the photos and the work of you and your scouts!

 

You're very welcome! (ditto the other thanks above)

 

I should say though that most of the organising was done by GSUSA at RAF Alconbury. We just turned up and provided some labour! I have a feeling that with Alconbury due to close in the next few years we may be being lined up to take over from them on this as it's a regular slot that they have each year.

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