I took a group of cubs and a few boy scouts out today to place some flags at a memorial park. This park is new with only 150 or so veteran graves, but we had a good group of 15 boys and their parents there to participate.

 

It was so neat to see the parents explaining the military symbols on the stones, what a purple heart is, what a bronze star is, and what service really means.

 

It didn't dawn on me how moving and what a lesson this could really be to a young boy until we saw a grave of a young man not even 20 that died in the line of duty in Iraq. His long list of military awards was summed up in a few lines on his stone. A Webelos came up to me and pulled on my sleeve saying, "Is it OK to come back on Monday and give him flowers? He doesn't have any and I want him to know he's my hero."

 

That right there made the 10 hours of planning for this weekend a success. I'm so proud of our boys!

It's moments like that which make you believe you're doing something right with these boys. Thank you for that great story!

Depending upon which cemetary in the county, Scouts will be out tomorrow at 8AM, 8:30AM, or 9AM to do Flags Out for Memorial Day. In years past, after school let out they would meet at the cemetaries to collect flags. Luckily this year the school board chose to let them off.

We participate in the event tomorrow at the Marietta National Cemetery, with many other Troops and Packs from the Atlanta Area Council. I believe there are around 18,000 graves there, and they will all be flagged in about an hour. The Scouts are taught to place the flag in front of the marker, stand at attention, read the name on the marker, and give a salute. It is a very nice way for the Scouts to participate in a Memorial Day event and help them understand what Memorial Day means, instead of just it being another holiday.

I have organized our Troop to help with Flags at the local Cemetery a couple times. I even found we had 3 MOH awarded soldiers buried there, 1 from the civil war, one from Perl Harbor (USS Oklahoma), and 1 from Vietnam.

My Troop will be out on Saturday planting flags, and back again on Monday for a ceremony. It is a great experience for the boys, and it helps start a lot of great conversations. I usually do 2-3 Scoutmaster's Conferences while there as well - it brings things into perspective.

 

We use the ceremony on Monday to work on American Heritage Merit Badge where the boys need to interview Veterans. Nothing like having a young Scout interview someone in a VFW cap to give both sides something to talk about.

Last Saturday, for the second year in a row, my oldest son and I headed to a local cemetery, where the town veterans' affairs coordinator was organizing a group to replace worn and tattered flags at veterans' gravesites. He supplies everything: flags, replacement markers, doughnuts, coffee and water. There is one other cemetery in town, and the coordinator tells me they do their own thing there, and that he doesn't need to support it.

 

It doesn't take long, and with one or two other troops in town showing up, what could be a two-hour job takes even less time. I had to leave on the early side this year, but last year there were a couple of women there attending to their husband's graves. I spoke with them, and asked them a little bit about their husbands. It was difficult not to get weepy.

 

Then it dawned on me...even though I have no idea who these men (and a couple of women) were, it feels pretty nice to do this. I hope that someone else, in another town and another state, is doing the same for my dad's gravesite.

 

Guy

We just did Baltimore National Cemetery this evening. I'm always amazed that in less then 40 minutes the Scouts can place over 45,000 flags. It truely is something to behold.

Just finished my cemetery with my pack, the troop, crew, and 2 other packs. Passed a 2nd cemetary and the scouts were out there as well.