Students help place flags on graves

Honoring a soldier’s ultimate sacrifice takes many forms.
In Morgan City this morning, it was students from Morgan City High School’s Historical Society assisting veterans’ organizations by placing or replacing American flags on the graves of deceased veterans.
Eleventh-grade student Jacqueline Nguyen said, “I take it as a perfect opportunity to show appreciation for everybody that served for us and show them the last bit of appreciation that we can.”
The Ladies Auxiliary of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4222 bought 2,500 flags to honor all veterans in the Amelia, Morgan City, Berwick and Patterson cemeteries, according to VFW Ladies Auxiliary President-elect Tina Stratton.
Jerry Cunningham, a member of both the VFW post and American Legion Post 96, said it’s an honor to place the flags.
“It’s a duty that I do every year … I’m 75 on my next birthday and I’ll keep doing it as long as these legs will carry me around. I saw so many of them suffer and die,” Cunningham said.
He served two years in the Army and signed up to serve four more years in the Air Force because “I didn’t feel like I did enough.”
Serving from 1959-1965 as a medic, he was stationed in Turkey and flew medical evacuation missions in and out of Vietnam.
“My job was to keep them alive on the plane,” he said.
Morgan City High School’s Historical Society began placing the flags on graves in 1999.
Sponsor Michelle South said assisting the veterans with flag placement gives students an appreciation of history as well as aiding the aging veterans with some of the leg work in the large cemetery.
“It opens their eyes. They see the plots of people who were living and realize the sacrifice they made for our country,” South said.