Calverton National Cemetery

Scouts placed American flags on the nearly quarter-million graves at Calverton National Cemetery this morning.

Veterans groups from across eastern Suffolk County participated in Veterans Day ceremonies this afternoon at Calverton National Cemetery, witnessed by an audience of several hundred spectators.

Thousands of volunteers decorated more than 230,000 graves at Calverton National Cemetery with small U.S. flags in the 22nd annual flag placement day conducted by Suffolk County scout troops.

As a fine, cold mist fell over Calverton National Cemetery, the crowd gathered there beneath umbrellas and raincoats joined together to sing the National Anthem.

Memorial Day ceremonies at Calverton National Cemetery today included a special tribute to Riverhead Medal of Honor recipient PFC Garfield M. Langhorn, who died a hero at age 20 in Vietnam on Jan. 15, 1969.

Calverton National, America's busiest national cemetery, conducts about 6,000 burials each year. More than 3,000 veterans of WWI are interred at Calverton, which opened in 1978. Born in the 1800s, those vets probably don’t have a lot of relatives around to remember them and mark their graves. "Without you, it would not be done,” cemetery director Michael Picerno told the Scouts.

Keynote speaker Ken Rosenblum urged veterans and nonveterans alike to come to the aid of the growing population of veterans who need a wide range of assistance.