Veterans Continue To Honor Their Fallen

Veterans work to flag graves in preparation of Memorial Day.

Oskaloosa, Iowa – The global pandemic may cause them to not celebrate those sacrifices the way they would like, but they will honor them the best way they can.

On Wednesday afternoon, Joe Durian, along with volunteers from the American Legion and the VFW, among others, went section by section, and rural cemetery by cemetery to painstakingly put a flag on every veteran’s gravesite.

The groups will also display the Avenue of Flags inside of Forest Cemetery and they will be visible next week if the weather cooperates.

Durian said that the veterans didn’t call the Oskaloosa Student Council for help because of concerns over COVID-19. “I don’t want too much of a crowd.”

The groups will put out approximately 2000 flags, and retrieve those flags in a couple of weeks until next year.

Some rural cemeteries may have as few as two veterans, but others may have dozens, and with over 50 cemeteries in the county, it can be a long process.

Buried in the county are those who served the US Military in the Indian Wars, Civil War, Spanish-American War, through the Great Wars, and into today’s conflicts.

At Forest Cemetery, there is buried a Confederate States of America officer, and he is flagged with a Confederate flag during Memorial Day.

One of those volunteering their time to help flag the gravesites was Coy Snakenburg.

Snakenburg wanted to volunteer his time because the American Legion has been there to help him pay for college.

Snakenburg is no stranger to helping flag the cemetery, as he also participated as a student council member in high school. “I felt like it would be pretty cool to give back to them for giving me scholarship money.”

“I think it’s pretty cool, just to honor the fallen heroes,” added Snakenburg.

The traditional Memorial Day Service has been canceled for this year. “No, we’re not going to gather to celebrate it,” says Durian of this year’s service.

At the American Legion, repairs to the facility have been underway while they’ve been closed during the pandemic.

Vernie Wells donated money to help fix the building’s approach, while the City of Oskaloosa fixed its portions.

Updated ceiling tiles and lighting, as well as windows, will help provide more light inside the building.

American Legion Post #34 Commander Darrin Alderson says that the Post has been doing buddy checks, and checking on fellow veterans, checking if they need any help during this time. The Post then gets the necessary resources to help the veteran.

The local Post also used Zoom for their last meeting, and the application “worked pretty well. It might be the new norm.

The distancing has forced the Legion to make the change, “but that change might be a good thing, because now we might be able to get more people to attend a meeting.”

Alderson said that there is a small group that will go and check on different individuals. The first calls they at the Legion made were to the World War II and Korean Veterans. “Because that’s probably our most vulnerable generation right now,” added Alderson. “So, We want to check on them and reach out to them.”

Alderson returned calls for a couple of days, and many of those veterans wanted to “chit chat because they’ve not seen anybody.”

Alderson said that many of those veterans who responded are “tired of being cooped up, but they’re not ready to go back out because they just don’t know and just don’t want to take the chance.”

“My generation are probably not taking it as serious as we should,” said Alderson, who served during the first Gulf War. “We’re kind of continuing life as normal as we can.”

“It’s kind of a broad array on how people are looking at it [virus],” says Alderson.

Posted by on May 14 2020. Filed under Local News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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