By Kirk Macdonald
This letter is in response to Yvonne Port”s letter in regards to finding a better way to honor veterans at local cemeteries other than sticking a little flag in the ground that gets blown over the next day.
First I would like to say I am sorry you were not able to see the Avenue of Flags fly the flags of fallen veterans at the cemetery on Veterans Day because of possible rain. There are over 200 flags flown at Hartley Cemetery and these flags belong to the families of the fallen veterans which are entrusted to the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 951 to fly and to protect. These flags are burial flags and do not hold up to wet weather. The only flags flown Veterans Day at Hartley Cemetery were the all-weather flags of each branch of service and one American flag at Veterans Circle, provided by the United Veterans Honor Team of Lake County.
In regards to the question of the small flags at the grave sites, these flags are place there by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2015 the morning of Veterans Day and Memorial Day and are removed at the end of the day. Any flags left at the grave site the next day have been placed there by the family of the fallen veteran and we do not disturb them. These smaller flags were not flown that day also because of the possibility of wet weather.
Hopefully, on Memorial Day, the weather will be nice and we will be able to fly all the flags at all the cemeteries in Lake County that fly flags which are Lower Lake, Upper Lake, Kelseyville and Hartley.
I believe that finding a better way is to have more people involved in the process of placing and removing flags to honor the veterans on these days. If you have a better way in mind or would just like to help you may contact me, Kirk Macdonald, at 263-8449. I am a member of all three of the above veterans” organizations. Thank you for your concern.
Kirk Macdonald
Lakeport
