Plains remembers fallen on Memorial Day

Melissa Oyer

Valley Press

Members of the Plains VFW Post #3596 and the Ladies Auxiliary placed flags on graves of former members who served in the military.

A handful of volunteers also came out to place the 381 flags.

Polly Gill was the cemetery director for the event and had distributed lists to each volunteer.

Each roster listed each grave needing a flag by their name, and location in the cemetery, making it easy to locate the 300 plus names.

Teams of two or so members split up each section of the cemetery and worked as a pair with one reading the name and the other locating the specific grave.

The flags are reused each year and are replaced when they become weathered or torn.

Glen Rummel, a member for 50 plus years was the cemetery director last year.

He was working with Otto Otnes, who has been a member of the Plains VFW for the past five years.

Greg Davis joined the pair later in the morning. Davis is the incoming District Legion Commander and will be sworn in next month. He has been a life member of the VFW since 1992.

Davis said h e came out because it is the right thing to do. “I am here today to honor family members,” Davis said. “I will place flags for my father and stepfather as well as family members I may not be related to by blood, but we still fought together so it means just as much to be here.”

Polly Gill brought her family along with her to teach her kids the meaning of freedom and liberty and of doing a good service in the community.

Gill’s husband Craig was telling a story about each soldier when the kids placed a flag on their marker.

He told them their rank, what war they served in and what their specific job was on almost every one of the 40 or so graves they placed flags on.

“I want to teach these kids what they aren’t taught in school,” Gill said, “which is respect for the soldiers who are serving in the military.”

Verna Smith and Linda Knight were placing small wooden stars on members of the Kathryn C. Johnson #132, Order of the Eastern Star from Plains and Hot Springs.

“We are here remembering Eastern Star members with these star emblems as a sign of respect,” Knight said.

The stars will remain through the weekend until members return to remove them.

The flags placed by the VFW members will remain until after Saturday May 30 when there will be an official Memorial Day ceremony held at 6 p.m. at the cemetery.