Flag placing a regular tradition for Butler County Memorial Park
In just a few weeks, the landscape of Butler County Memorial Park will be colored with the red, white and blue of more than 2,000 American flags.
Paul Simms, manager of the memorial park and its mausoleum, said state law requires memorial parks to place American flags on the gravestones of veterans for at least 30 days, coinciding with Memorial Day. While the initiative is required by law — and quite time-consuming — Simms said the outcome is worth it.
“Currently we have over 2,000 veterans buried here at the cemetery. It's a big job putting all those flags down,” Simms said Monday, May 6. “It looks really awesome to see 2,000 flags planted here.”
The work takes two days to finish, Simms said, and he and members of the U.S. Army Reserves will begin May 23. In past years, there were up to 12 people planting the flags, Simms said, which still took two days to complete.
Simms has worked at Butler County Memorial Park since the 1980s, when there were only about 600 veterans buried there. Over the years, 600 became 700, 700 became 800 and so on, he explained.
Simms said although there is no ceremony following the flag placing Friday, people are welcome to visit the memorial park to check out the display.
“We have everybody from privates to three-star generals to every rank in between,” Simms said. “Over the years there have been so many veterans; you literally can't tell which is the veterans' section.”
Simms said the flags will remain in place at least until Labor Day.
