After helping place flags Monday morning at veterans’ graves at Memory Gardens Cemetery, children, holding flags that would be placed later in the day at East Greenwood and other area cemeteries, listen to comments made by local veterans organization leaders.
Dozens begin their Memorial Day holiday placing flags at veterans’ graves
Weatherford Democrat
The Weatherford Democrat Wed May 29, 2013
Before heading to the lake, shopping sprees or the backyard for a barbecue on a Memorial Day holiday, dozens of people began their Monday by U.S. flags at veterans’ graves.
Representatives of American Legion Post 163, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4746 and their related ladies and junior auxiliaries, along with members of Boy Scout Troop 75, grabbed fistfuls of American flags and fanned out through the immaculately groomed Memory Gardens Cemetery grounds west of Weatherford, looking for inscriptions on markers signaling a U.S. veteran’s permanent resting place.
The day’s plans included moving from Memory Gardens to East Greenwood Cemetery in northeast Weatherford to place flags on veterans’ graves there, as well. American Legion officials said some 10,000 flags would be posted at grave markers Monday at those two cemeteries as well as at smaller cemeteries throughout the area. The flags will remain in place through the week.
At Memory Gardens, the flag-placing volunteers were summoned to the cemetery’s central flagpole where several speeches and a prayer was said.
“We have a lot of thanking to do today to the men and women who gave their lives to keep our country free,” said World War II veteran Chuck Katlic, now chaplain for American Legion Post 163, before delivering a prayer.
Ron Chandler, financial officer for the post, read aloud a letter from U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. The letter, in part, read:
“Those who have given their lives for our nation were a part of our community. Our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. We honor their memory and seek to uphold their spirit.
“I am constantly encouraged by Texans’ unwavering commitment to our service members and their families. Let me express my gratitude for all that you do to support the families of the fallen.”
Korea War veteran and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4746 Commander Max Kassera told those gathered that “Memorial Day stirs passions, going back to Biblical Times to the wars of Europe.”
Kassera remarked how weapons and technologies have advanced, and the countries with the best and most advanced weapons are the ones that typically win.
“The only thing that produces a war is animosity between politicians … and people like those of us standing here are the ones who suffer,” he said.
Legion Post 163 Commander Bill Mallory also provided some remarks before veteran and Perrin resident Donald Cranford, dressed in Colonial attire, moved the small crowd with a theatric recital of the poem, “A Toast to the Flag,” written in 197 by journalist John J. Daly. As a member of National Sojourners and the associated Heroes of ‘76, he provides patriotic educational programs. He is a member of American Legion Post 163 and is a retired U.S. Army major.
