This year on Memorial Day, Bruce and I went to the Oak Hill Cemetery for their services, we'd heard how impressive they are and we were not disappointed. There were 250 flags that volunteers put up for the weekend, they have over 650 flags that are dedicated so they rotate them every year. Each flag has a dog tag with the name of the person it represents and this year there were 11 (I think) new flags dedicated to veterans no longer with us.
It takes a lot of volunteers to put this on, the Cherokee High School band played several numbers.
The Boy Scouts explained the symbolism of folding the flag, what each fold stood for.
The younger cub scouts with their leaders placed a wreath ....
....as did the Girl Scouts.
We found out at the cemetery that a flag was being dedicated for Gary Doherty, Bruce made a few trips to Canada fishing with him and the Luetkeman boys and always had a great time. His wife, Jean, daughter Lisa with her husband, Jeff and children, Amber and Brady followed the flag down the path.
This was one of the trips, Don on the left, Dale on the right with Bruce in the middle, showing off their catch. Don and Dale both lost their fights with leukemia and cancer respectively and were gone much too soon.
I knew I had more pictures of all the guys on one of the Boat Farm trips to Lak Seul fishing resort and have been searching frantically, Bingo!
Don....
....Dale....
....and Gary. Unlike the other two, Gary died suddenly while fishing in Canada, a great shock to his family and friends.
I think we would all like to go while doing something we love, but Gary seemed way to young at the age of 71, not yet, not yet...
I had to add this picture of Don and Bruce, he loved those fishing trips, now his buddies are fishing in heaven.
This is a video montage that I made up of the day, I hope you enjoy it.
This Memorial Day weekend in Chicago and Baltimore was marred by violence and shootings leaving 21 dead and 79 wounded, including a 4 yr old girl.
Our young people were taking the time out of their weekend to help put up the flags and pay tribute to those who protected our country and are no longer with us.
They make us proud.
God Bless America!
I couldn't get the video to work Julie...but otherwise I loved this blog. That is very impressive, 250 flags, and also teary seeing the family following their loved one's flag. what a committment by the community to make their Memorial Day Service so nice!! CG
ReplyDeleteSorry CG, it did that to Bruce one day and then I messed around and it worked. I do my blog on Chrome because Internet Explorer was really messing up. I'll see if I can get it to work but if you have Chrome, check it on there. Thanks, I love hearing your comments!
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