SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - The Boy Scouts of America arrived at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on the last Monday in May with flags in hand.
The annual Memorial Day commemoration saw hundreds of scouts arrive and place American flags at each grave at Rosecrans.
Do you have a personal connection with anyone at this cemetery? #MemorialDay pic.twitter.com/HZsr3IL2Mu
— Michael Dean Gold (@10newsGold) May 27, 2017
Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared May 30 Decoration Day in 1868, as a time to decorate the graves of the nation's fallen service members. It's believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country. In 1971, that day was expanded to include all American wars as Memorial Day.
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According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Gen. Logan said "we should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. ... Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic."
Decorating graves quickly expanded to placing flags at grave markers and has carried on ever since.
The National Moment of Remembrance asks everyone to pause wherever they are at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day for a minute of silence to remember and honor those who have died as "a way we can all help put the memorial back in Memorial Day."
