County Executive Steve Bellone is pushing back on the Veteran’s Administration’s decision to ban flag placement by groups at the national cemeteries in observance of Memorial Day this year.
“What does it say about our generation if we’re not able to find a way to safely place American flags on the graves of our fallen heroes?” Bellone said. “If we allow this virus to stop us from doing that, then in my mind we have seriously failed.”
The county executive said he has written to the VA’s undersecretary of memorial affairs to ask the agency to allow the county health department to develop a plan for placing the flags on the graves at L.I. National Cemetery and Calverton National Cemetery.
Each year thousands of Scouts from troops across Suffolk place flags on the nearly quarter-million graves at Calverton National Cemetery, the nation’s largest and busiest national cemetery.
“I am 100% confident we can logistically do this in a safe manner,” Bellone said today during a news briefing. “We will certify the flag placement is done safely, within social distancing requirements, with face coverings,” he said.
“This virus has taken a lot from us. We cannot allow it to stop us from appropriately honoring America’s heroes,” Bellone said.
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