When visiting cemeteries and seeing the small flags fluttering from veterans’ graves, most people do not realize the effort it takes to put the flags out before each Memorial Day.

Dannie Gilliam of the local chapter of the Disabled American Veterans is calling on community groups to help with this task this year, which involves the distribution of hundreds of flags.

“It used to be that our World War II veterans put out the flags,” said Gilliam. “But most of them are getting so old that it’s just too much. Our veterans from other wars are also getting up in years. We have asked the Boy Scouts, the JROTC and individuals to come out and help us.”

Gilliam said anyone interested in helping with putting out flags should meet him in the McConnell Funeral Home parking lot Saturday, 8 a.m. May 24. Flags are provided, having been purchased from contributions from DAV, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Vietnam Veterans of America.

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. While Waterloo, N.Y., was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it’s difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day, according to the Web site usmemorialday.org.

“Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all,” said a statement on the Web site.

Gen. John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11 officially proclaimed Memorial Day on May 5,1868, and it was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

New York was the first state to officially recognize the holiday in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

It is now celebrated in almost every state on the last Monday in May, which was passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 1971 to ensure a three-day weekend for Federal holidays, though several southern states have an additional separate day for honoring the Confederate war dead, which is April 26 in Alabama.

Many Americans seem to have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored and neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country.

However, there are a few exceptions. Since the late 1950’s on the Thursday before Memorial Day, the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing. In 1951, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts of St. Louis began placing flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery as an annual Good Turn, a practice that continues to this day.

Beginning in 1998, on the Saturday before the observed day for Memorial Day, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts place a candle at each of approximately 15,300 gravesites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park on Marye’s Heights, which is called the Luminaria Program.

Burial detail needed

Gilliam said the local veteran groups are also looking for veterans interested in serving in burial details.