Recognizing Their Service | Palatka Daily News, Palatka, Florida

Volunteers adorn vets’ graves with flags ahead of Memorial Day

An American flag is placed at the gravesite of a U.S. military veteran.
American Legion Commander Ken Moore on Tuesday salutes the grave of a veteran who is buried at West View Cemetery in Palatka.
American Legion First Vice Commander Lester Sheppard places an American flag on a veteran’s grave.
Volunteers place American flags on veterans’ graves in Palatka’s West View Cemetery on Tuesday to honor their service.
Positively Putnam FL

Members of American Legion Bert Hodge Post 45 saluted fallen soldiers in Palatka’s West View Cemetery on Tuesday while placing American flags in front of the tombstones.

Post Leader Ken Moore doesn’t know how long Legion members have been placing flags on the graves of fallen veterans, but he knows it has been several years. And he doesn’t want the soldiers’ sacrifices to go unrecognized as Memorial Day approaches.

Johnson-Overturf Funeral Home donated the American flags. Employee Ricky Bybee said volunteers will be placing 4,500 flags on graves in 10 public cemeteries across Putnam County this year.

“It’s personal to me,” Bybee said. “… It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to do this and also to teach our younger folks the rich history of our country and know that these guys and gals that have gone before us are not forgotten.”

Bybee, who served in the Navy, said the funeral home started donating 1,500 flags in 2016, since then, they’ve added 500 flags each year.

Moore, an Army veteran, said he and other volunteers placed flags in West View and Oak Hill cemeteries Tuesday. Looking around the tombstones in West View, he said many veterans are buried there. Graves recognized soldiers who served in the Civil War, Spanish-American War and for every military branch.

“All these rights and freedoms we have are because of a lot of these guys right here,” Moore said, motioning to the graves around him.

And the headstones recognized troops of color and Confederate soldiers without discrimination, he said.

“A veteran doesn’t see color. There’s not a veteran out there who wasn’t in a foxhole or who had a backup or who was being treated by a medic or a chopper pilot worried about what religion or race he was or what his political affiliation was,” Moore said. “They were brothers and sisters.”

The Army veteran said he worries about people not appreciating the sacrifices every veteran made for people today. He especially worried about the younger generation not appreciating generations before them.

“I worry about our younger people losing our history,” Moore said. “… I just wish people would take more pride in their history and where they came from.”

He said there are events planned for people to recognize fallen veterans. The Memorial Day parade will kick off 10 a.m. Monday in Palatka along St. Johns Avenue, starting at 11th Street and ending at the riverfront. A service at the riverfront will follow.

American Legion Post 293 in Interlachen also has several events planned to mark Memorial Day, with ceremonies starting 10 a.m. The post is at 145 S. County Road 315.

Bybee said anyone who wants help place flags in cemeteries for the rest of the week is invited to come out.

Flags will be placed 9 a.m. today at Eden Cemetery in Crescent City, followed by the Lake Como-Pomona Park Cemetery later today.

Residents can also help 9 a.m. Thursday at Etoniah Cemetery in Bardin and will go to Bostwick Cemetery afterward.

The American flags are scheduled to be removed and cleaned the week of June 7, Bybee said.

Residents who have questions about volunteering can call Bybee at 538-6376.

“They’re veterans,” Moore said. “It doesn’t matter where they served, where they came from, any of that. They were brothers. They fought for what they believed in.”