Flags flying for Memorial Day weekend on the central lawn of Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday.
Photo by Scott Neuffer.
A solemn exercise commenced among a group of volunteers at Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday afternoon: the placing of American flags on the graves of veterans. The flags were to stand through Memorial Day weekend to honor those who have served in the armed forces throughout the history of the United States.
“For myself, it’s to remember those who served and gave the ultimate sacrifice to our country,” said Carson City resident Tony Carrasco, himself a veteran of the U.S. Navy Seabees and part of the local American Legion Post 4.
According to staff in the Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department, which oversees Lone Mountain, there are around 2,200 veterans buried in the historic cemetery including more than 40 Civil War-era veterans moved from Fort Churchill and reinterred in the 1880s.
Carson City resident Scott Lenfestey places a flag beside a gravestone at Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday. (Scott Neuffer photo)
“I think it’s important to honor those who have served,” said Leland Roper, 17, a cadet lieutenant junior grade in Carson High’s NJROTC program, “and it’s also to help those who are currently serving to let them know they will be honored for generations to come.”
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.
“It’s a very select group of people who come from the high school and give their time,” said 16-year-old Tanner McCune, petty officer first class in Carson High’s NJROTC program. “It’s something that needs to be done.”
From left, Carson High NJROTC cadet Anna Shane, 15, and Carson City resident Loree Smith transporting flags to veteran graves at Lone Mountain Cemetery on Friday. Scott Neuffer photo) More than 50 volunteers showed up Friday, planning to return Monday to retrieve the flags. John Hefner, retired command sergeant major for the Nevada Army National Guard, said Disabled American Veterans, Carson City Chapter 7, has been organizing the Memorial Day flag event since the late 1970s.
Hefner said the DAV chapter is always looking for new members and meets 5:30 p.m. the third Monday of the month at the Carson City Airport. Email csmjvh@hotmail.com for information.