Activities planned to honor the fallen on Memorial Day

Havre Daily News Staff

Local veterans organizations have planned services to honor the fallen on Memorial Day, and are looking for some help in honoring them the day before.

Les Johnson, commander of American Legion Post 11, said the Veterans Honor Guard will be placing flags Sunday at the graves of military veterans in Highland Cemetery, and would welcome help. The guard will start placing flags at 9 a.m.

Monday, the Memorial Day commemoration will start at the Hill County Courthouse at 11 a.m.

The service includes Boy Scouts presenting the colors; Dena Rudio singing the national anthem; wreath placement by the American Legion, its auxiliary, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 497 and the Elks; a reading of a list of the local veterans who died in the past year, and a three-volley solute by the Honor Guard.

The commemoration will then move to the Elks Club, where the colors again will be presented,

holding a POW-MMIA ceremony, a presentation by the Elks and a reading of a letter from the American Legion about Memorial Day.

Gary Crossler will provide lunch to all who attend, and Johnson said everyone is welcome to attend the commemoration and event at the Elks.

“The more the better,” he said.

Memorial Day began after the U.S. Civil War, originally called Decoration Day, held to honor and remember the soldiers who had died in the war.

During World War I, the holiday evolved to commemorate American soldiers who had died in any war.

The original date, set by founder Gen. John A. Logan, the leader of of an organization of Northern Civil War veterans, was May 30, established by Logan in 1868.

In 1968, Congress passed a law designating Memorial Day as the last Monday in May and declaring it a national holiday. The 1968 Uniform Monday Act went into effect in 1971.