An intrepid group of Veterans gathers at an early hour, 1100 Zulu (0600 local) at Love’s Country Store in Hooker OK. They represent every branch of our armed services except the Coast Guard. The group also includes a few civilians. Their help is greatly appreciated.
Today, their mission is to insert metal poles holding large US flags into the ground along the car paths in our cemetery. When I say large, I mean LARGE! The flags are what is called a “casket flag” and they measure 5 ft x 91/2 ft. This is not a small task on a calm day, never mind a windy one.
These guys from Love’s though, make a great team, and they’ve been doing it for a long time. This is all in preparation for the annual Memorial Day ceremony.
Many of them will go home, change clothes and come back in bright white Legion uniform shirts with dark ties, and dark pants, more of a military look. They trade their ball caps for white helmets, some will pick up rifles others flags. They will practice a few formations and drill commands in the street just outside, and then head to the first of two Memorial Day ceremonies they are to participate in.
One will be at the Tyrone Oklahoma cemetery, a small town about ten miles away. The other will be at the Hooker Cemetery. At both locations the State and US flags are carried into the cemetery in formation by members of the Honor Guard. The flag carriers are followed by the squad of riflemen.
In the ceremony, comments recognizing the day will be made by a speaker. This will be followed by a prayer. The speaker at Hooker told us there were 300+ veterans buried in our little cemetery. I did not know that.
After the remarks and a prayer, the Commander says, “We will now honor our fallen.” At the command “ready, aim, fire,” the rifle squad fire their M1s, and the sound of gunfire echoes across the dry and dusty prairie with each volley.
After the ceremony, the command “dismiss” is given and the members of the guard head back to town already planning to do this again next year. This is optimistic, for this group’s average age would be at least in the early seventies
But you remember those guys who met at Love’s? They are not yet done. They all go back home, they change clothes yet again, and at 1400 local (1900 Zulu) go back out to take all the flags down.
At 1549 local (2049) Zulu, all the flags are down, the poles are stored, the flags are folded and back in their boxes, ready for next year.
It makes a full day for a bunch of old guys.
I believe the number of flags and associated poles is 160. Single handedly taking down a flag of that size in a 30 mph wind can be taxing.
On the bright side, I now have 9270 steps on my Fitbit and there’s still a lot of day left.
Do we live in a great country or what?