An Army honor guard folds a flag from a casket during a memorial service and burial at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township, Mich., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014.
Paul Sancya / AP Photo
Indiantown Gap in need of internment flags for memorial
Internment flags are draped on a veteran’s casket and then presented to a surviving family member.
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Brett Sholtis
Paul Sancya / AP Photo
An Army honor guard folds a flag from a casket during a memorial service and burial at Great Lakes National Cemetery in Holly Township, Mich., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014.
(Harrisburg) — Indiantown Gap National Cemetery is in need of hundreds of internment flags to replace worn out ones on its Avenue of Flags memorial.
An internment flag is one that had been draped on a veteran’s casket and then presented to a surviving family member at a military honors funeral.
They are the only flags allowed to be flown at the Avenue of the Flags, which honors veterans at the cemetery in Annville, Lebanon County. About 550 interment flags are flown along the driveways of the cemetery.
However, every month, some of them are determined to be too old to fly, according to the cemetery’s memorial council.
The group said it’s going to need at least 660 internment flags by May 2020. So, it’s asking families to donate them to be flown in tribute of their deceased veteran.
“Of the 135 National Cemeteries, this National Cemetery and a smaller one in South Dakota are the only ones presenting this style of the Avenue of Flags from the beginning of May till shortly after Veteran’s Day in November,” the council said in a news release.
“Every flag is inspected by the weekly inspection teams who take down and replace weather-worn flags, sometimes at the rate of 90 to 100 flags a month. Weather-worn flags are then retired with dignity and their ashes are placed in the bottom of a standard grave before the veteran’s casket is placed.”
The flags off can be dropped off at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.
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