Respect: Flags part of Memorial Day observance

The Carson City Chapter 7 of the Disabled American Veterans handed out bundles of American flags at Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday to honor veterans over Memorial Day weekend.

More than 50 participants, including Boy Scouts of America Troop 341, installed the flags in the turf of the Carson City cemetery next to headstones of those deceased, and the flags were to be recovered Monday.

Boy Scouts Clayton Jones, left, and Sam Barker install American flags near veteran graves at Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday. (Scott Neuffer photo) 

John Hefner of DAV Chapter 7, who retired from the Nevada Army National Guard as a command sergeant major, said there are more than 1,700 veteran graves at the historic cemetery. Some graves date back to veterans of the American Civil War.

“It really gives a good demonstration of all the respect and camaraderie displayed for all those lost,” Hefner said.

Carson resident Pascal Carpiaux said he immigrated to the U.S. from Belgium as a child. He served in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years, achieving the rank of sergeant first class.

“The same reason when I walk by a flagpole I salute,” he said when asked why he was participating. “I’ve been doing it my whole life.”

Boy Scout Sam Barker, 16, was with members of Troop 341. He described how he wanted to be respectful of those in the cemetery.

“I’m happy to be here for people who fought for our country,” he said.

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Memorial Day was first known as Decoration Day and was started after the Civil War to honor the fallen.

“Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers,” reads a VA document. “Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared it should be May 30. It is believed the date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.”

After World War I, the day encompassed all American wars, according to the VA. Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1971.