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Decorations of respect
At Calverton National Cemetery, area scouts and others keep alive longtime Memorial Day tradition
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Some 6,000 volunteers, including area Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts and their families and members of veterans organizations will unite Saturday, May 23, to place flags on the graves of over 212,000 veterans in Calverton National Cemetery.
Sponsored this year by Fred Bryant of Bryant Funeral Home in Setauket, the event begins at 9:30 am and is open to the public. It will wrap at 11 am, when the scouts are invited to attend a presentation of colors by the Civil Air Patrol color guard, according to Frank Belsito, commander of the American Legion Pearl Harbor Post No. 1941 and an organizer of the event. This year the ceremonies are being dedicated to Congressional Medal of Honor and Purple Heart recipients, Belsito said in a written statement.
At the event, which Bryant said is in its 15th year, the scouts are told the meaning of Memorial Day and how to properly place the flags at each grave. "[T]hey carefully and respectfully go to their pre-assigned area of the cemetery," Bryant said. "It's wonderful to see so many hands doing the work; the entire process takes less than an hour and is an amazing transformation."
The 11 am ceremony will feature a 21-gun salute and Air Force fly-overs, including a helicopter fly-over, Belsito said. "I am grateful to Fred Bryant and for all the local volunteers and scout leaders who come and attend this event. It honors the veterans who gave so courageously of themselves," the American Legion commander said.
Bryant recalled his own father insisting on decorating the graves of veterans. The elder Bryant had been a sergeant in the Army stationed in London during World War II. "When he returned home and resumed his busy life, he was determined that veterans should not be forgotten," Bryant recalled recently. "Dad helped organize the Setauket Memorial Day parades, Flag Day ceremonies in the elementary schools and was the force that kept the Harbor Post going during its lean years after Vietnam," he said.
Bryant, whose funeral home honors each veteran it serves by posting a branch of service flag, placing a branch of service emblem on the hearse and, at Calverton National Cemetery, seeing that full military honors are performed and Presidential Memorial Certificates given to the families of all honorably discharged veterans, echoed the sentiments of his father, "It is our duty and privilege to continue to honor the memory of these heroes, in the way we were taught."
Speaking of our veterans, Bryant said, "All gave some and some gave all, and they deserve to be remembered."
The National Cemetery is located at 210 Princeton Boulevard in Calverton, between Routes 25 and 25A.
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