Memorial Day is now just days away, however local veteran support chapters of the VFW and Military Order of the Purple Heart have been keeping busy organizing Memorial Day events throughout the entire week leading up to Monday.
On Sunday, the week of events began with a candlelight vigil honoring the memory of veterans and soldiers who have lost their lives to suicide. On Wednesday, veteran support groups honored veterans in Littlefield who have died.
This upcoming Sunday, area Gold Star families will be honored at the Second Baptist Church in Lubbock. Looking ahead to Memorial Day, volunteers from the community are being asked to join in placing 4,500 flags at the Resthaven Cemetery at 19th Street and Frankford Avenue ahead of the annual Memorial Day service there Monday, which as always, is open to the community.
Organizers like Benny Guerrero, Commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Lubbock chapter, say they realize while many take the extra day off to have fun with friends and family, they also want to make sure people know what it truly stands for.
“Every now and then you do get people going to the beach and going out having a good time, which is perfectly fine, but you gotta remember, and we gotta take pause and remember that the reason that you’re at your beach is because people stormed the beaches of Iwo Jima, stormed the beaches of Normandy, of Okinawa, of Guadalcanal so we could be free here in the U.S.”
If you are interested in laying flags down on Saturday morning, you are being asked to meet at the cemetery at 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning. They will begin placing the flags at 8 a.m.
