Cemetery Service | Palatka Daily News, Palatka, Florida

Students replace flags, clean graves to pay respects to veterans

Interlachen Junior-Senior High School JROTC cadets clean the grave of Pfc. Robert H. Jenkins on Saturday morning.
Courtesy of Katherine Parker Interlachen Junior-Senior High School JROTC senior Maleki Woodworth trims branches at Sister Spring Cemetery on Saturday.
The grave of Robert H. Jenkins is spruced up after Interlachen High JROTC students cleaned and replaced the American flags on the site.
Family members and friends of Pfc. Robert H. Jenkins stand with Interlachen Junior-Senior High School JROTC leaders Saturday outside Sister Springs cemetery.
Interlachen Junior-Senior High School JROTC cadets Alex Davis and Jacob Mulaney work at Sister Spring Cemetery on Saturday.
Positively Putnam FL

INTERLACHEN – A group of high school students didn’t have to wake up at 8 a.m. Saturday to honor veterans buried in Sister Spring Cemetery, but they did.

Cadets in the Interlachen Junior-Senior High School JROTC program spent four hours cleaning cemetery graves and replacing old American flags with new ones in a special ceremony.

Cadet Capt. Maleki Woodworth, executive officer for the Interlachen battalion and senior student, said he has been participating in this event for four years and wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else Saturday.

“It’s a wonderful, wonderful event,” he said.“Any opportunity that we get to come out here and serve our community, serve our families, to most importantly serve our veterans – it’s an opportunity that we take.”

Sister Spring is the resting home of Pfc. Robert H. Jenkins, a U.S. Marine veteran and Medal of Honor recipient who sacrificed his life in 1969 during the Vietnam War.

Jenkins was born in Interlachen, graduated from Central Academy High School in 1967 and enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1968.

While serving with the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, Jenkins jumped on his fellow Marine, Fred Ostrom, to shield him from a grenade blast. Jenkins died from the blast but saved Ostrom.

The JROTC cadets took their time Saturday to pay special attention to Jenkins’ grave.

Lt. Col. Michaell Slimack, who is a senior and the battalion commander, said cadets split into three teams to rake, level gravestones and clean the cemetery grounds.

“After we all did that, we all, as a group, went over to Jenkins’ gravesite and hand-cleaned it with no tools,” he said. And then we replaced the flags on his (grave) first.”

Leo Granger, who oversees the cemetery’s upkeep, said the cadets come out twice a year to clean Sister Spring, and they have been doing it for more than four years.

“That means a lot to me,” said Granger, who also founded a scholarship on behalf of Jenkins. “...They got a lot done.”

Slimack said once they replaced the American flags on Jenkins’ grave, they did the same to the other veterans buried in Sister Spring.

The cadets stood in a line, walked backward, read each of the veterans’ names on the gravestones and took a moment of silence before replacing each flag.

“That’s exactly what the JROTC is supposed to be about,” Woodworth said. “... We’ll take whatever opportunities are given to us to give back to our community.”