WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – More than 1,500 soldiers from The Old Guard placed American flags at more than 260,000 headstones at Arlington National Cemetery early Thursday morning, ahead of Memorial Day.
“No plot here can be bought. All of them must be earned. There is no other place like that,” said Captain Sean Conaway, about Arlington National Cemetery. “To place an individual flag on each individual’s grave is special. It keeps us connected.”
Conaway and members of The Old Guard began placing the flags before dawn on a damp Thursday morning. Each soldier used their boot to measure the distance from the headstone to the flag, ensuring the entire row looks uniform.
Each soldier received one flag.
“One that stands out for me is Captain John Tinsley,” said Sergeant Major John Kitzmiller. “I always aspired to be like him.”
Tinsley was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2009. He’s buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
“Every year I think about him,” Kitzmiller said.
Kitzmiller said, it’s not just about the holiday. He’s constantly thinking about the people who served before him.
“It’s comforting, in a way, to know that at some point, soldiers might be doing this for me,” Kitzmiller said.
Source: Fox 8 News Channel