This is a plea for the community to assist in the placement of flags on deceased veterans graves on Memorial Day. Let me explain why I am making this plea. Each Memorial Day the Veterans Activities Committee organizes the placement of American flags. What happens is a few members of American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) show up and place flags on three cemeteries in Colquitt County. Three! That means a lot of veterans in the cemeteries in our county are not being honored on Memorial Day.

The members of the American Legion and VFW are not spring chickens. I’m not saying we’re old, but our placement of flags is like the half dead honoring the dead. In other words, there’s no way we can complete this without help from the community.

I am hoping the ministerial association will ask each minister to assist with the placement of flags on Memorial Day. In fact, it would be a big help if community churches with cemeteries would ask their congregations to help in this project. I believe many church members would be willing to put out flags a few days before Memorial Day and take them up a day or two after the holiday.

Every veteran could be honored on Memorial Day if churches, clubs, service organizations, fire departments, police stations, and other community groups adopt a cemetery (or part of a cemetery) for placement of flags. Honoring deceased veterans in this manner will let the families know we have not forgotten their sacrifice.

Let me explain how flags are placed. The American Legion or VFW member drives a short hole with a piece of rebar, then another member places the flag in the hole, salutes, and says the full name of the veteran. We have discussed putting a PVC pipe (with a cap glued on) in the hole so we don’t have to create the hole every year. If we do this, we will probably let the PVC stick up a little out of the ground so we can spot it easily. Of course, each organization could create their own protocol for how they wish to place flags.

Any organization wishing to assist in the placement of flags next Memorial Day should contact Tom Davis, chairman of the Veterans Activities Committee. Tom’s address is 2273 Highway 111, Moultrie, Georgia 31768, and his telephone number is 941-5350.

Travis King

2018-19 commander

American Legion Post 324