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The placing of the flags: Memorial Day 2015

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Luis Loza Gutierrez
  • 319th Air Base Wing
GRAND FORKS, N.D. --  More than 200 Airmen and family members from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. volunteered to place U.S. flags on the gravesite of U.S. military veterans at two different cemeteries in the city of Grand Forks, N.D., on May 22, 2015.

The placing of U.S. flags at Memorial Park Cemetery and Memorial Park South Cemetery is an annual community-wide event coordinated by local military-veteran affiliated organizations such as the American Legion and the Disabled American Veterans along with help from professional military organizations from the base such as the Air Force Sergeants Association and Network 5/6.

Memorial Day, an American holiday observed on the last Monday of May, honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades.

The crowd attending the first Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery was approximately the same size as those that attend today's observance, about 5,000 people. Then, as now, small American flags were placed on each grave -- a tradition followed at many national cemeteries today. In recent years, the custom has grown in many families to decorate the graves of all departed loved ones.

The origins of special services to honor those who die in war can be found in antiquity. The Athenian leader Pericles offered a tribute to the fallen heroes of the Peloponnesian War over 24 centuries ago that could be applied today to the 1.1 million Americans who have died in the nation's wars: "Not only are they commemorated by columns and inscriptions, but there dwells also an unwritten memorial of them, graven not on stone but in the hearts of men."

To ensure the sacrifices of America 's fallen heroes are never forgotten, in December 2000, the U.S. Congress passed and the president signed into law "The National Moment of Remembrance Act," P.L. 106-579, creating the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance. The commission's charter is to "encourage the people of the United States to give something back to their country, which provides them so much freedom and opportunity" by encouraging and coordinating commemorations in the United States of Memorial Day and the National Moment of Remembrance.

The National Moment of Remembrance encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died in service to the nation. As Moment of Remembrance founder Carmella LaSpada states: "It's a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day."

(Additional information for this article came from the Department of Veterans Affairs.)