Honoring Veterans on Memorial Day

JR placing flags at the cemetery

This past Saturday, we had the honor of placing flags on the graves of veterans at a local cemetery. I've never been a fan of cemeteries, but swallowed my inhibitions and we arrived at 7am on Saturday ready to volunteer. We were joined by 36 other volunteers, including our family and friends. The cemetery has over 6,500 veterans and our mission was to find each and everyone and honor them by placing a flag at their grave site to honor their service. Some veterans had the government issued headstones, like the one above. For the other veterans, we had to follow the cemetery employees who had lists designating the veterans with family headstones. With at least 20 employees and the 36 volunteers, it took four hours to put out 6500 flags. Looking back at the cemetery as we left, we were overwhelmed with how many people at this single location served our country. Most were veterans were from WWII, Vietnam, and Korea, with a few Veterans from WWI and even Iraq. Iraq veterans really hit home because they died at such a young age, in their twenties and younger than us.

The bracelet JR wears to honor his friend.

JR lost a friend during the OIF3 (Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005), Spc. Dennis Ferderer. JR wears a bracelet with his picture and information on it every day (To purchase one, visit InOurHearts.org). Everytime I look at it, I see Ferderer's birth year, 1985. It's the same year that my sister was born, so it tends to resonate with me. He was only 20 years old when he was killed on Nov. 2, 2005. We would like to honor him today.

Later today, we're hosting a Memorial Day BBQ with our family and friends joining us. One of the best way to celebrate Memorial Day is to enjoy the freedom that our soldiers have fought so hard to preserve. It is because of the men and women that have served our country, that we can enjoy a day-off and have BBQs.

If you served, or have family who have served, we would like to say, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE." We are thinking of you and your sacrifices on this holiday weekend.

~ Nicole

Originally posted on PTSDdiary.com, 5/31/10