Nine Things to Know this Memorial Day
(Updated May 26, 2017) Memorial Day isn’t just an opportunity for a barbecue or a weekend getaway. It’s a day honoring American soldiers who sacrificed their lives for our country. President Trump proclaimed this Memorial Day, May 29, 2017, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and urged all Americans to observe a National Moment of Remembrance at 3 p.m. local time.
Here are some reminders about Memorial Day that will help me commemorate this day.
1. Memorial Day was established after the Civil War.
Three years after the end of the Civil War (May 5, 1868), an organization of Union veterans established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. May 30 was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
2. Memorial Day was first observed at Arlington National Cemetery.
However, several local springtime tributes to the Civil War dead already had been held in various places. One of the first occurred in Columbus, Miss., April 25, 1866, when a group of women visited a cemetery to decorate the graves of Confederate soldiers who had fallen in battle at Shiloh. The nearby graves of Union soldiers lay bare — and the women placed some of their flowers on those graves as well.
3. After World War I, Memorial Day was expanded to honor all Americans who died in war.
In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress and placed on the last Monday in May.
4. A National Moment of Remembrance at 3pm honors those who have died in service with a minute-long moment of silence.
In December 2000, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” PL 106–579.
5. The flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon only.
On Memorial Day, the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon only, then raised briskly to the top of the staff until sunset, in honor of the nation’s battle heroes. No regulations existed for flying the flag at half-staff and, as a result, there were many conflicting policies — until March 1, 1954, when President Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation on the proper times.
6. Bright red poppies were first sold in 1920 to help orphans and others struggling after the war.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars adopted the poppy as its official memorial flower in 1922. And in 1924, a poppy factory was built in Pittsburgh, Pa., providing a reliable source of poppies and a practical means of assistance to veterans. (Learn about the VFW’s Buddy Poppy Program.)
7. The Old Guard honors the fallen with a tradition known as “flags in.”
The Old Guard (3rd US Infantry designated as the Army’s official ceremonial unit) places flags before the gravestones of service members buried at both Arlington National Cemetery and the US Soldier’s and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery just prior to Memorial Day weekend. Small American flags are placed one foot in from and centered before each grave marker: the toe of the combat boot placed against the center of a headstone, flag planted at the heel. In three hours, The Old Guard places flags in front of more than 228,000 gravestones and about 7,000 niches at the cemetery’s columbarium, and they remain in the cemetery throughout the weekend, ensuring that a flag remains at each gravestone.
8. More than one million Americans died in our nation’s conflicts going back to the Revolutionary War.
Here are the numbers:
- American Revolution (1775–1783): 4,435
- War of 1812 (1812–1815): 2,260
- Mexican War (1846–1848): 13,283
- Civil War (1861–1865): 364,511 (Union and Confederate)
- Spanish-American War (1898–1902): 2,446
- World War I (1917–1918): 116,516
- World War II (1941–1945): 405,399
- Korean War (1950–1953): 36,574
- Vietnam War (1964–1975): 58,209
- Gulf War (1990–1991): 382
- Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (Afghanistan) (2001-present): 2,349 (as of May 27, 2016)
- Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003–2014): 4,424
9. There nearly 83,000 missing and unaccounted-for Americans who served in war.
82,729 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts. Three in four of the missing are located in the Asia-Pacific, and nearly half of all missing Americans are presumed lost at sea, including ship losses and known aircraft water losses. About 88 percent of missing Americans — more than 73,000 — served in World War II.
Last year, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) held a repatriation ceremony in New Delhi, India to pay full honors to what they believe are the possible remains of crew members of B-24 and C-109 aircraft that were lost in India in January 1944 and July 1945 respectively. The B-24 aircraft carried eight personnel assigned to the 14th Air Force, 308th Bomb Group at the time of its loss, with all unaccounted for. A four-man Army Air Force crew was aboard the C-109 that crashed as it travelled from Jorhat, India to Hsinching, China.
A DPAA expeditionary team recovered remains from the B-24 bomber last fall. The team navigated treacherous terrain to hike 9,000 feet above sea level in the Indian Himalayas, facing 30–60 degree inclines and falling debris from higher positions.
For those of you who have served in our country’s Armed Forces, thank you and your families for your service.
