Volunteers from the Lawrence County 4-H club, Boy Scout Troop 410, and the Women Veterans of Southwest Missouri American Legion Post place flags at headstones in the Springfield National Cemetery on Thursday evening, May 25, 2023 in preparation for Memorial Day.
Volunteers will have placed thousands of flags on headstones at Springfield National Cemetery by Memorial Day Weekend. A Memorial Day ceremony will be held Monday at 11 a.m. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Michelle Cope and her son, Conner, 8, and daughter Skyler, 9, of Aurora leave Springfield National Cemetery after volunteering to place flags at headstones for the first time. They were there with Conner and Skyler’s 4-H Club. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Jennifer Tyes, a veteran of the U.S. Army who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, was one of the volunteers from the Women Veterans of Southwest Missouri American Legion at the National Cemetery. She received some help placing flags from Callie Rose Rider, 6, who was at the cemetery with her grandmother, U.S. Army veteran Debbie Erwin, (not pictured). (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Callie Rose Rider, 6, was at the cemetery with her grandmother, U.S. Army veteran Debbie Erwin, (not pictured). “This is her first stay over with Grandma, so what a memory” commented Erwin. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Explaining why she was at the cemetery Rosalina Albaladejo, 13, president of her 4-H club said “It’s an honorable and a good thing to do. All these people died so we could have a better life.” (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
A volunteer makes sure that he places a flag a foot length away and facing the front of an “Unknown” soldier’s tombstone. Springfield National Cemetery was established in 1867 and holds the remains of many soldiers who died in the Civil War Battle of Wilson’s Creek. An 1871 report recorded 832 “known” and 689 “unknown” graves in the cemetery. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Jamie Lowry, leader of the Mount Comfort 4-H Club carries an armful of flags to be placed at headstones in the National Cemetery by other volunteers Wednesday night. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
4-H Club member Conner Cope, 8, of Aurora runs through a section of the Springfield National Cemetery with an armful of American flags. “I’m just here to push flags in,” Connor said practically. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Fenn Henrichs, 12, of Springfield, a member of Boy Scout Troop 410, places flags in a section of World War I and World War II veterans in the National Cemetery. “I like to see how long people lived. Some people lived a long time after the war, some might have died the first day. Some people sacrificed themselves,” Henrichs said. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Elizabeth Trader, of Springfield, hands her 18-month-old daughter Natalie a flag while she and her husband, Doug, not pictured, volunteer at Springfield National Cemetery Thursday night, May 25, 2023. Both husband and wife have multiple family members who have served in the military. “We want to do this with her every year,” Elizabeth said. “She needs to know the incredible sacrifice of people we will never know.“ (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Skyler Cope, 9, of Aurora remarked “This ground is pretty hard” as she pushed a flag into the turf at National Cemetery. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Volunteers will have placed thousands of flags on headstones at Springfield National Cemetery by Memorial Day Weekend. A Memorial Day ceremony will be held Monday at 11 a.m. (Photo by Jym Wilson) 
Aria Duwe, 9, of Mt. Vernon, tries to get a handle on handful of flags during Wednesday night’s volunteer session with her 4-H Club. “My great-grandfather is buried right over there under that big tree,” she said. U.S. Army Private Albert H. Duwe was wounded at Normandy days after the D-Day invasion. He died in October of 1984. (Photo by Jym Wilson)