SAN DIEGO — Memorial Day weekend might mean a long holiday weekend. But for some locals they made sure to remind everyone that the holiday is actually to pay respect to the brave men and women who have died while serving the United States armed forces.
“It’s about honoring the brave men and women. Also to know why these tombstones are here,” said Tamara Layton, who took her grandchildren to volunteer.
Men, women and children all said the names of our heroes out loud.
They also followed by saluting them and placing an American flag on 66,000 graves within the cemetery walls of Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.
It's a tradition that the Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts of San Diego have been waiting to do, to commemorate the bravery, courage, and honor of our troops.
Like 8-year-old Josiah Aragon who has been a cub scout for several months now and expressed his gratitude by making sure every grave had some red white and blue.
“I think this is so important, it's the best way to honor them,” said Aragon.
For him it wasn’t just paying respect to those who have sacrificed their lives to protect our country, but also to show respect to his father who once served in the navy.
Meanwhile volunteers walked throughout the cemetery ensuring flags were properly placed.
“We were looking at the graves and we were just thinking, gosh they wouldn’t recognize our country. We have so much to be thankful about,” said Steve Warren who because of the pandemic wasn’t able to help for the last two years.
Warren also added that even though Memorial Day is a time to celebrate the freedom we have in America, we should never forget that that very freedom came at the expense of the brave heroes who lost their lives fighting to protect it.
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