FROM THE ARCHIVES: OF EVER HONORED MEMORY (via Mike Daley)

Teen's efforts ID vets' graves (Ralph Montaño, May 29, 2004, Sacramento Bee)

Two years ago, Eagle Scout Samuel Nassie of Paradise spent most of Memorial Day alone in a cemetery raising flags on veterans' graves.

Two other Scouts helped but said they had to leave early, Nassie recalled. He refused to leave the task unfinished. Sweat poured off his body as he wandered the grassy grounds to post the last of about 1,600 flags. He discovered that many graves at the Paradise Cemetery could not be identified using existing maps.

"The veterans deserved to be honored for what they did," said Nassie, now 16. "I knew there had to be a better way."

That day, Nassie began a quest of honoring those who served the nation during war and are buried in Paradise. He would spend hundreds of hours locating and documenting veterans scattered across 23 acres.

Because of Nassie's efforts, almost 2,000 flags will fly in the cemetery this weekend. About two dozen local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts will begin placing flags today using a massive two-volume guide that Nassie organized.

"It has been the best education for him," said Samuel Nassie's mother, Linda. "He sat down recently with some survivors of the Bataan Death March (of World War II), and a few told him their stories. It has been a real journey."

MORE (via Jim Siegel)
Subject: Memorial Day

Words don't see to come as easy for me as they do for others. Might explain why I went Infantry and not Military Intelligence.

I just got home and my arm is a little stiff and my back a bit sore. 40 plus doesn't bounce back like a 20 year old.

I spent two hours or more today placing flags on graves in the cemetery. 12 inches, center, push down, two steps right, repeat, flag after flag. It's hot here, getting up to 90 today, not much when you compare to 115 in Iraq. Row after row

It really hits home. The first hour I was in the Phoebus cemetery. Veterans of the Spanish American War, WWII, Vietnam. Row after row.

Lots of volunteers, but never too many. The VFW, the Boy Scouts, a bus from

the local school, and of course Soldiers. Some by themselves, some in uniform, some with their children. Row after row.

Looks like we are about done. No, sir, we still have the Hampton side, that's another 30,000 graves, only 23,000 over here. Row after row.

Hampton is half done by the time I arrive. Grade school children, middle school and the Cub Scouts have started already. They place a flag and move on. Row after row.

The children have forgotten to mark the backsides of the stones so we head out. The backside contains the names of the widows and the children; they too get a flag. Row after row.

Our beloved son CJ, we will miss you so much. Lou Ann, wife. Susan, daughter. Infant son. Simple words, simple stones. Row after row.

Christians, Jews and a Buddhist, side by side, under the shade of a tree. Fresh flowers mark a grave from yesterday. The backhoe beeps as they start to dig one for tomorrow. Row after row.

The Sergeant notices some of the children have placed the flags 6 inches from the stones. He bends over, pulls it up, and starts down the row, moving each flag to the required distance. Row after row.

Memorial Day is special, every day, every year, but even more so when we have troops in combat. I hope to help do this every year. But I pray we don't add any more rows.

May God bless and keep our troops safe from harm.

Michael S. McGurk
Lieutenant Colonel, Infantry
Fort Monroe, VA

Remarks from Colin Powell, US Secretary of State (World Economic Forum, On 26 January 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell (profile) spoke at the Annual Meeting 2003 in the session Dialogue with the US Secretary of State.)

We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we’ve done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.

[Originally posted: 5/31/04]