Memorial Day still feels a little dislocated to be falling on the last Monday of May. It used to always fall on a Sunday. You may have seen on the news how members of the armed services place flags on the graves at Arlington.
Each flagstaff was pushed into the ground at exactly the length of the honoring serviceman's foot measured from the headstone of the fallen soldier. I had not noticed that detail before. Doing so ensured that all of the flags placed by any one person were always in a straight line down the row.
After placing each flag, the serviceman stepped back and gravely saluted the fallen comrade. It was a moving ceremony, precisely and quietly carried out. Each gravesite received that solemn tribute.
It made me proud to think that those honored dead with no living contemporaries should also be so remembered.
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Steve's band director conducts the Thirteenth Army Band every year during the Memorial Holiday weekend. Mr. Phifer, who was also a great influence for S. and E.; a legacy with the SWRLMB. Southwest Royal Lancer Marching Band. Purple Pride!
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