VA official rejects Suffolk’s flag-placement plea, but county executive appeals

County Executive Steve Bellone’s plea to allow group flag placement at Suffolk’s two national cemeteries has been rejected the agency official who oversees memorial affairs, Bellone announced yesterday.

Bellone last week wrote to the undersecretary of memorial affairs at the VA asking him to allow national cemeteries to make decisions about group flag placement on the local level. Yesterday, the county executive said he was informed the VA’s Undersecretary for Memorial Affairs Randy Reeves is standing by his decision.

The National Cemetery Administration decided last month not to host public events for Memorial Day, “including the mass placement and retrieval of gravesite flags by any groups” due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NCA said on a statement posted on its website that it “relies largely on volunteers for placement and retrieval of gravesite flags for Memorial Day and these activities attract thousands of volunteers annually. Limiting the number of volunteers is not practical.” The cemeteries remain open for individual visitors, who are welcome to place flags and wreaths for Memorial Day, the administration said.

Bellone said he has now written to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie asking him to intervene.

He said the county has developed a plan to allow for the flag placement to take place safely and within CDC guidelines.

“I cannot understand for the life of me why the VA will not allow the local communities to do flag placement where the local health department is certifying that there is a safety plan that meets all the requirements,” Bellone said during a press conference yesterday.

“We’re working on reopening. We’re learning how to, in this environment, have things open and still operate safely,” Bellone said. “How is it that we can say that as a community — as a country — we can’t figure out a way to safely put America flags at the graves of service members who have died for our country?To me, that is an unacceptable answer.”

Bellone said he has asked Wilkie to overturn the decision of the undersecretary and allow the local cemeteries to make the decision.

“We will take responsibility,” he said.

If the VA won’t budge, Bellone said he has asked the agency to
“donate a portion of the flags” to the county to assist with a separate effort he initiated to place flags at non-VA cemeteries in Suffolk.

Bellone announced on Friday evening the county had struck a partnership with more than a dozen local cemeteries to place American flags at the gravestones of veterans on Saturday, May 23. The county will work with local Boy Scout troops and veterans organizations to conduct the group flag placement at the those cemeteries, he said.

Among the participating cemeteries listed in the county executive’s press release is St. John the Evangelist Cemetery in Riverhead. Not listed in Riverhead Cemetery, where PFC Garfield Langhorn, the only Suffolk County resident to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War, is buried.

Langhorn, a Riverhead native, was killed in Vietnam on Jan. 15, 1969 when he threw himself on a live grenade to save the lives of injured soldiers his platoon had been sent into the jungle to rescue. He was 20 years old.

The cemeteries participating in the county’s flag placement effort, according to the county executive’s press release are:

Babylon Rural Cemetery, Babylon
First Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Southold
Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Coram
Huntington Rural Cemetery, Huntington
Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and Crematory, Center Moriches
North Babylon Cemetery, Babylon
Our Lady of the Isle Cemetery, Dering Harbor
Queen of All Saints Cemetery, Central Islip
Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, Southampton
Shaarey Pardes Accabonac Grove Cemetery, East Hampton
St. Ann’s Episcopal Church Cemetery, Sayville
St. John the Evangelist Cemetery
St. Patricks Cemetery, Smithtown
Union Cemetery, Middle Island
Washington Memorial Park Cemetery, Mt Sinai

The Suffolk County Veterans Services Agency is working with local Boy Scout troops to identify the sites for flag placement and with the Suffolk County Health Department to implement safety measures that meet the current guidance from New York State and the federal government, the county executive said. Among the safety measures that will be put into place include 6-foot separation for flag pick-up and mandatory face coverings.