BROKEN BOW, NE – Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3576 is asking the public to join them at the Broken Bow Cemetery for the placing of flags at the graves of veterans ahead of Memorial Day.
Those who want to help with the effort to place around 700 flags are invited to meet at the cemetery at 4:00 PM Thursday May 23 (Time changed to earlier due to forecasted weather).
Flag placements near Memorial Day are believed to have started in 1868 shortly after the end of the Civil War. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first event.
A similar placing of flags happens each year at Arlington National Cemetery just before Memorial Day weekend. Known as “Flags In”, it has taken place annually since 1948. Every available soldier in the Old Guard participates, along with the members of other service branches. Small American flags are placed in front of more than 260,000 headstones and at the bottom of about columbarium 7,000 niche rows. Each flag is inserted into the ground, exactly one boot length from the headstone’s base.
The VFW and American Legion oversee the placement of the flags in Broken Bow each year. Flags are placed on the graves of those who served in branches of the military as well as groups such as the Ladies Auxiliary.
Those with questions ahead of Thursday’s flag placing can be directed to Dell Moninger at 308-870-4150.
