Remembering Those Who Served

Remembering Those Who Served

Lisa Patrick

The Ashland Beacon

Every year on the Saturday before Memorial Day, a group of people meets at Golden Oaks Cemetery to honor those who served in the Armed Forces before they passed away. The group includes veterans, civilians, and Boy Scout troops. They walk through the cemetery and place flags on the graves of veterans.

Mike Wurts, an Army veteran, has been placing flags for 41 years. Wurts says that he’s motivated to do this because his entire family are veterans. One day, he was at the American Legion with his father when he saw a sign posted asking for volunteers to put the flags out. His dad said, “That’s a job for you.” So, he started at Ashland Cemetery and eventually moved on to Golden Oaks and Rose Hill cemeteries. Wurts is retired from the state of Kentucky and said that while he was working in Boyd County, he “saw all of these cemeteries,” so he thought, “they’re veterans just like anyone else,” and began placing flags on the graves of veterans in cemeteries around Boyd County.

Phil Bloomer, a leader in Scout Troop 154, said that his troop has been helping place flags on veterans’ graves for more than twenty years. He has personally participated for the past seventeen years. Bloomer said that “i think it’s an important thing for all of us to remember the sacrifice that people make for our country, how important our country is and what we need to continue doing to protect it.” His Scout troop comes to help “because it is a great opportunity for the boys as well.” He added that for some of them, “this is their first experience. Their first time coming out and realizing how many people sacrificed, how many people give in wars.”

Boy Scout Troop 1100 also showed up Saturday morning to help, as they have for the past ten years. They placed flags on one side of the cemetery while Troop 154 covered the other. The boys enjoy reading the tombstones and learning about the history of the men who sacrificed for their country. One of the boys found the grave of a man who had served as a bugler in World War I and then went on to live to the age of 90.

While they were there, a woman came to place flowers and a small flag on the grave of her late husband. Although his grave was not marked, they learned that he had served on the U.S.S. Enterprise during World War II, and they were able to place a bigger flag on his grave to honor him.

Mike Wurts says the “Pledge of Allegiance” for the Boyd County Fiscal Court and “in turn, they buy my flags.” Wurts claims that he will “put flags on the graves of the veterans until I die.” He added, “I’m not here for the glory. It’s about them. It ain’t about me.”