The annual Veteran’s Day Flag Planting will be held on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022, at West Hartford’s Fairview Cemetery. [The time of this event has been updated.]
By Ronni Newton
Veteran’s Day is Nov. 11, and to honor all of the veterans buried in West Hartford’s Fairview Cemetery, flags will be placed in advance on their graves on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
There are more than 1,200 military graves in Fairview Cemetery, and American Legion Hayes-Velhage Post 96 is looking for members from the community to assist in planting flags. Volunteers are asked to arrive at the Cemetery Management area at 8 a.m. (note revised time) for instructions and assignment to an area. There is no need to RSVP.
Because the ground may be hard, volunteers may want to bring a screwdriver or other tool to aid in planting the flags.
Veterans and members of multiple West Hartford scout troops, as well as other citizens, have gathered at Fairview Cemetery to complete the flag-planting tradition initiated by the late Jean Paul Berard more than 40 years ago. The tradition of placing flags for Memorial Day and Veterans Day at veterans’ graves is recognized throughout the country, and at Arlington Cemetery in Virginia more than 280,000 are placed at headstones to honor every individual buried there.
Anyone who has a relative or friend buried at Fairview whose grave is not properly identified as that of a veteran should contact the cemetery office at 860-561-8136 so that a flag can be planted there.
Hayes-Velhage Post 96 will also be collecting any American flag that needs to be retired. An American flag, when no longer in use, is retired at a ceremony where the flag is burned. Flags will be collected from 8:30 to 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5, 2022.
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