Watch above: Four people share why they attended the flag placement ceremony at Jacksonville National Cemetery on Thursday. (Ella Thompson/WUFT News)
Kristina Ball has three family members buried at Jacksonville National Ceremony, including her father-in-law and a grandfather who served in different branches during the Vietnam War. Her grandmother, who was not in the service, is buried with her grandfather.
Margaret Sproch’s husband Arthur, a scout dog handler in the Marines during the Vietnam War, died in 2021 at age 72. His grave is also in the ceremony. Two of their daughters served in the Navy. Indeed, their family’s veteran history dates back to the Revolutionary War.
Andrea Ford’s son, Victor Sharp, also died in 2021, at age 48 from COVID-19. He was her oldest child and served four years in the Army. His tombstone at the cemetery reads: “Beloved son, brother, father and friend. Forever loved.”
The three women were among hundreds of volunteers who on Thursday for Memorial Day placed 25,000 small U.S. flags about a boot’s length from every tombstone at the 525-acre cemetery.
“It’s a privilege – bittersweet privilege, but I do it,” said Ford, 67, who attended the event with a friend whose veteran brother died in 2020 and is also buried at the cemetery.
Some gravesites were accompanied with flower bouquets and extra American flags.
Sproch, 74, was part of the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) in 1969. “We didn’t go on ships,” she said. “We didn't do anything but secretarial work.”
Her daughter Tabatha Matthews, 51, who served in the Navy for four years, said she joined her mother to help plant flags not only in memory of Arthur Sproch, who died of an Agent Orange related illness, but to honor all of the veterans in their family.
“It’s just a little thing that we can do to say thank you. That’s it,” Matthews said. “I wish we could do more, but if this is what we can do now, it’s just to say thanks.”
Matthews was a radioman stationed in San Diego, and her husband served in the Army for 22 years, retiring as a sergeant first class. Their daughter, a segreant, is the last active-duty member in the family, at least for now. With some grandchildren already in the family, and more on the way, the family is hopeful one will someday continue the tradition, she said.
Her father’s burial in January 2022 was “perfect,” Matthews said. “They honored him in the way that he would want to be – and what he was deserving of,” she said.
Memorial Day was first widely observed in 1868 to honor the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers, according to PBS. By the late 1800s, multiple states had declared it a holiday, and in 1971, Congress established the last Monday of each May as a federal one.
Flag placement ceremonies are observed across the U.S. each Memorial Day, with Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia the most notable because the president or vice president typically attends. Arlington also houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, a grave dedicated to soldiers whose remains haven’t been identified.
A placement ceremony will take place at St. Augustine National Cemetery on Saturday.
Another volunteer at Jacksonville, Camala Stringer, 58, said she wanted to honor her two family members buried there as well as five who are buried at Arlington. Her father, who fought in the Korean War, is buried alongside her mother, who was not in the service.
“They died nine months apart,” she said. “True love story.”
Commenting on how pretty the cemetery looked with the sea of flags in place, Stringer said ceremony made her feel “a little teary.”
Derrick Redd, who served in the Navy for 10 years as an information technician, said the ceremony Thursday was his first as assistant director of the cemetery in Jacksonville. He recently transferred from Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, where he was a cemetery representative.
“I’m amazed – this is a wonderful sight,” Redd said in his opening remarks. “Words cannot express how we feel about your presence here today.”
He joked that volunteers had their work cut out for them. The property encompasses 105 developed acres and 25,000 burials, the first of which occurred in 2009. “What you guys are doing today, it may seem simple,” Redd said. “But like I said, it means so much to us here as the faculty, the veterans that are buried here and even more to their family members.”
Another volunteer, Ulises Nava, an E1 stationed at the naval base in Mayport, said he wanted to give back to the military community, which includes his older brother, who is enlisted in the same branch and stationed on the West coast, he said.
“It feels like I’m doing something bigger than myself,” Nava said. “Paying tribute to all the people that were ahead of me and that paved the way for us to be here.”
