The Morning Blend
Welcome
Complete Media Kit
SIERRA VISTA — A national flag-raising ceremony will make one of its 25 stops at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery on Monday.
Joe Larson, the cemetery administrator, says the tour — called “Old Glory’s Journey of Remembrance” — holding an event locally is a “great honor.”
The cemetery is the only state-run veterans cemetery involved in the nationwide journey.
“Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery is honored to be a part of Old Glory’s Journey,” he said. “It is an opportunity to honor those who died on Dec. 7, 1941, those who survived that tragic day, and the sacrifices of countless Americans throughout our nation’s history.”
|
|
The cemetery is in the company of some well-known American landmarks on the tour, including the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania, the Vietnam War and Korean War memorials in Washington D.C., and the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where the tour began on Dec. 7.
Ceremonies occur each Monday at 10 a.m., until the journey ends on Memorial Day at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., during the National Moment of Remembrance ceremony.
Larson said that when he was first contacted about the event possibly being held in Sierra Vista, he told the organizers about the architecture of a building on the cemetery grounds — it has its nexus from the USS Arizona Memorial — and of the program to rebury 70 soldiers from the 19th century on the cemetery grounds.
That, he said, helped draw the event to Sierra Vista, which is the only Arizona stop in the tour.
A 4-by-6-foot flag will be raised during the ceremony. Larson said two other flags that are part of the tour also will fly over the cemetery on Monday. Those flags will then be passed to the next location, and the flags will fly at each of the 25 locations throughout the nation.
Monday’s ceremony will feature music and speeches, all geared at honoring the “service and sacrifice of America’s fallen heroes,” as well as the U.S. flag.
The 36th Army Band from Fort Huachuca will play, and 10 students from Village Meadows Elementary School will sing.
According to Sierra Vista school district spokeswoman Donna Avina, the school group was selected by the National Association of Elementary School Principals to participate. The White House Commission on Remembrance asked the association to make recommendations for each of the 25 tour stops.
The White House Commission is working with the USS Arizona Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum to organize the tour.
The keynote speaker is Randy Groth, civilian aide to the secretary of the Army for Arizona, and U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose Eighth Congressional District includes Cochise County and the cemetery, and Sierra Vista Mayor Bob Strain are scheduled to speak.
Larson said he doesn’t know why the tour was organized for this year, but says its seen as a one-time event.
When you go
Event: “Old Glory’s Journey of Remembrance”
When: 10 a.m. on Monday
Where: Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1300 Buffalo Soldier Trail
Admission: Free
‘Old Glory’s Journey of Remembrance’
The flag-raising event ceremony started at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7 and will end at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on May 26.
On each Monday in between, the journey of three flags have or will go to the following locations across the United States:
• Dec. 17: Aleutian Historic Park, Dutch Harbor, Alaska
• Dec. 24: Tahoma National Cemetery, Kent, Wash.
• Dec. 31: Roseburg National Cemetery, Roseburg, Ore.
• Jan. 7: Riverside National Cemetery, Riverside, Calif.
• Jan. 14: Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Sierra Vista
• Jan. 21: Santa Fe National Cemetery, Santa Fe, N.M.
• Jan. 28: Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colo.
• Feb. 4: Fort Meade National Cemetery, Sturgis, S.D.
• Feb. 11: Palo Alto Battlefield, Brownsville, Texas
• Feb. 18: Chalmette Battlefield, New Orleans
• Feb. 25: Fayetteville National Cemetery, Fayetteville, Ark.
• March 3: Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Mo.
• March 10: Rock Island National Cemetery, Rock Island, Ill.
• March 17: Nashville National Cemetery, Madison, Tenn.
• March 24: Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, Put-in-Bay, Ohio
• March 31: Independence Hall/Valley Forge, Philadelphia/King of Prussia, Pa.
• April 7: Fort McHenry, Baltimore, Md.
• April 14: Gettysburg, Gettysburg, Pa.
• April 21: Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, Mass.
• April 28: Appomattox Court House, Appomattox, Va.
• May 5: Korean War Memorial, Washington, D.C.
• May 12: Vietnam Memorial, Washington, D.C.
• May 19: Tomb of the Unknown, Arlington, Va.
HERALD/REVIEW Managing Editor Keith J. Allen can be reached at 515-4610 or keith.allen@svherald.com.
