Honoring local patriots with flags

Various organizations, including the Memorial Day Association, a number of local Boy Scout Troops, and representatives from area V.F.W. and American Legion posts mobilize each May to post flags on the graves of veterans at about 25 cemeteries all across Waseca County.

The names of all veterans honored by this flag posting, well over 2,000, are printed in a Memorial Day book which is distributed at Memorial Day programs and is available from the Waseca County Veteran Services office.

The smaller, individual flags are acquired by veteran organizations.

In addition to this, members of Waseca’s Sons of the American Legion (SAL), along with other volunteers from the American Legion, V.F.W., and Memorial Day Association, post more than 300 full-sized flags along drives within Woodville and Calvary cemeteries. The volunteers run an assembly line which involves placing first, a five-foot base pole, followed by a 15-foot flagpole, in mounts which were placed in the cemeteries long ago.

This year, flags were put in place the evening of Thursday, May 23. Storms damaged a number of them within a few days of their being raised, but replacement poles and flags were installed before Memorial Day.

Once put on display prior to Memorial Day, according to Memorial Day Association committee member Kevin Dickie, the flags continue to fly until shortly after July 4.

Most of the full-sized flags are marked with small plaques indicating who donated the funds needed to acquire them, or the names of the veterans in whose honor they were purchased.