The Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs released the following statement regarding flag placement at the Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery this Memorial Day weekend:
“The Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs operates five state veteran cemeteries. For both Memorial Day and Veterans Day, independent cemetery committees coordinate ceremonies and flag events. This Memorial Day, three out of the five cemetery committees placed flags. A fourth was unable due to construction and the fifth, Rocky Gap Veterans Cemetery, did not have sufficient committee participation to plan a ceremony or flag event.
Flag events require planning and coordination to ensure flags are placed, retrieved, cleaned, dried and repacked. Our cemeteries do not have the personnel to place flags and they rely on cemetery committee support to assist. On May 15, Rocky Gap announced there would be no Memorial Day program or flag event because the cemetery committee had planned neither.
Despite this, the community was able to garner volunteer support yesterday to place flags on all graves at Rocky Gap. By the afternoon flags were distributed throughout the cemetery. In addition to this outpouring of help, the community returned today and assisted with flag removal and storage. We are grateful for the many community members who assisted yesterday to ensure our graves received flags. The Department is equally as grateful to receive interest from both the Rocky Gap Casino and Civil Air Patrol in volunteering to support these important cemetery events.
For more information on the five cemetery committees, or to volunteer on a committee, please contact our Cemetery Program at 410-923-6981.”