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I fully understand the meaning my friend PVT Mark Brown and I'm working hard to change the mindset of many in the Denver, CO area. Victory for Veterans Foundation in partnership with Memorial Day Flowers Fooundation raised enough awareness and money for over 8,000 roses and 175 volunteers to help lay a rose at the foot of headstones at Fort Logan National Cemetery where over 122,000 veterans are currently interned on those hollow grounds. We will get to that number and many more volunteers in the near future that want to remember all of our veterans and service members by paying them their respects on Memorial Day! Great article and share Mark!

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Visiting the American military cemeteries in Europe is quite an experience. Each one is unique, but the one that stands out for me is the one in Luxembourg. The graves are arced around Patton's grave like he is addressing the troops.
You can get a different opinion of the French by being at one of our military cemeteries on Memorial Day. They go all out to honor our fallen.

Thank you PVT Mark Brown for standing up for Memorial Day as a day of honor for War Dead.
The tradition of honoring war dead dates back to ancient times certainly Egypt, Persia, Assyria Greece, Rome and other groups honored war dead in different ways.

Sometime in the past few decades the concept of adorning the graves in national and Veteran Cemeteries with USA Flags. In the 1800s flowers adorned the graves - I expect that the USA flag was not always welcomes over CSA soldier graves.

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Decoration Day honored friend and enemy alike in this nation.
"American’s embraced the notion of “Decoration Day” immediately. That first year, more than 27 states held some sort of ceremony, with more than 5,000 people in attendance at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. By 1890, every former state of the Union had adopted it as an official holiday. But for more than 50 years, the holiday was used to commemorate those killed just in the Civil War, not in any other American conflict. It wasn’t until America’s entry into World War I that the tradition was expanded to include those killed in all wars, and Memorial Day was not officially recognized nationwide until the 1970s, with America deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War."
"Although the term Memorial Day was used beginning in the 1880s, the holiday was officially known as Decoration Day for more than a century, when it was changed by federal law. Four years later, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 finally went into effect, moving Memorial Day from its traditional observance on May 30 (regardless of the day of the week), to a set day—the last Monday in May. The move has not been without controversy, though. Veterans groups, concerned that more Americans associate the holiday with first long weekend of the summer and not its intended purpose to honor the nation’s war dead, continue to lobby for a return to the May 30 observances. For more than 20 years, their cause was championed by Hawaiian Senator—and decorated World War II veteran—Daniel Inouye, who until his 2012 death reintroduced legislation in support of the change at the start of every Congressional term."
From history.com/news/8-things-you-may-not-know-about-memorial-day

Image: 1861 Decoration Day;

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