Honoring the Vets... Bowen Style

Happy Memorial Day... This is a neat holiday for me and my family because it gives a chance to reflect upon those who went before us...

I am the sexton of the Mendon Cemetery and what a great job (uncompensated) this has been for me... To look at the history and care for both the living and the dead is a humbling responsibility. It is even more important to get it done right for the sake of the family and my sanity.

One of my responsibilities as a sexton is to make sure that the flags are placed on the veterans graves for Memorial Day. In the past, I have had the local Girl Scouts help me out with this but that didn't materialize and so I decided to make it a family affair.

I informed the kids that we were going to get up early Saturday morning and put flags on the 108 veterans in the Mendon Cemetery.

Upon receiving this announcement, there was a combined groan that resembled a pre-historic dinosaur gasping for its last breath, but it turned out to be a great experience because they talked about it a lot after about the things and people they didn't know before.

So we all (Eric, Terri, Brandon, Heidi, Katie, and Erin) loaded up in the the van with clipboards and flags in hand and took to the cemetery... The Bowen Brood insisted that they ride in the back of the van with the door up and that was hilarious to say the least.

After we got out, the assignments were given out and Heidi and Brandon paired up... and Katie and Erin paired up and then Terri and I took the rest. Everybody went straight to work and it was pretty cool to see how their demeanor changed as they respected the dead they were honoring.

Above is Erin placing a flag on a vets grave... Katie was right close by... but didn't show up in the picture. The noted that there was some neat inscriptions on the headstones and that there were some cool things.

Brandon and Heidi had the longest list and I gave it to them on purpose because I knew that they would recognize a lot of the people we were honoring and they had a lot of responses to that... They ran into Dean Maurer and Pete Joe Sanchez... two of our neighbors and they commented on how neat it was to see a vet (Fred Walker) that actually wasn't buried there but only memorialized because he was lost at sea during WW II. There are four vets that are in that same situation in the cemetery. They even mentioned that they didn't know that Melva Kidman was a veteran...

The kids did give me crap about being the last one done... we, by far had the shortest list but again it was important for me to get it done right. We (Terri and I) were in the old part of the cemetery and it was mostly Pioneer Veterans who served their country, Spanish American War Veterans, and even one from the Texas Republic Army... James Jack.

Then I ran into a few people that meant a lot to me growing up... Ned J. Bodily... a WW II vet that was my principal at Mendon Elementary school... and even Joseph B. Richards... the biggest, boastinest, potlicker I ever knew... he was a character.

Terri, not to be outdone and our photographer to boot, evidently snapped a close up of the bottom of the flag sticks or.... well, we just leave it at that... Ha ha...

When all was said and done and we had completed the task, (although this picture only shows one flag), the sight was impressive and it was neat to know that there was that many people in a small town cemetery had served their country with honor... and some gave their all.

This morning, after bishopric meeting, I made my way up to the cemetery with camera in hand and notice that the city had set a row of flags up the road leading to the cemetery and it was a cool site... Don't you think???

This is looking down the road...



Happy Memorial Day to All... and spend some time this weekend about YOUR heritage and the people in you lives that have made a difference in you live... whether dead or alive... because when it comes right down to it... Family is where it is at...



I think our family learned something about that today... I appreciate their efforts and love them a ton.

Tommorrow, I am excited to participate in another one of my sexton duties... getting the colors posted... Memorial Day Style...

Matt Shelton had a great Eagle Project where the Flagpole was replace and it looks wonderful... To ice the cake, I have asked him to lead a flag raising ceremony at dawn tommorrow... 5:58 am.

I mentioned a minute ago about posting the colors Memorial Day Style.... Prior to becoming a sexton, i didn't know that there was a protocol for a flag service on that day... Here it is...

Displaying the flag at half staff on MEMORIAL DAY

On Memorial Day the flag is flown at half-staff only until NOON. The proper sequence for displaying the flag on this holiday we have set aside to remember the more than one million men and women who have died in defense of our Nation is:

1. In the morning the flag should be attached to the halyard and raised briskly to the top of the flag pole, then slowly lowered to the mid-way point of the pole.



2. At noon the flag should be raised to the top of the flag pole.



3. At the end of the day the flag should be slowly and ceremoniously lowered and removed.
   
   So think of me at noon tommorrow when I will be raising the flag from half mast to full mast...
   
   
   Hope we all learned something today...
   God Bless!!!
   
   Here's a couple of pictures from this mornings "half mast" raising...