community phenix family

A Flag For Every Hero | Veteran's Day 2022

Veteran's Day weekend, Saturday, November 12, 2022, members of the Phenix Family gathered at the Riverside National Cemetery to help hundreds of other volunteers gather the flags placed at every gravestone.

Every year on Memorial Day and Veteran's Day, Honoring Our Fallen hosts A Flag for Every Hero where hundreds of volunteers gather to both place a flag at every gravestone but also to gather and respectfully pack away.

Family members arrived around 7:30 am and stayed until nearly 1 pm picking up flags and respectfully storing them for future use. Many of members of the Phenix family have either served themselves or have close family and friends who have served making this an extremely meaningful event to take part in.

We are extremely grateful to the program organizers who take such care to organize the community to honor those who have served and given so much to this country.

Riverside National Cemetery has 200,000+ gravesites which makes it impossible for the cemetery to fund the program. The cemetery welcomes the public to participate in placing the flags but it is done so at the public's expense. A Flag for Every Hero collects donations and gathers thousands of volunteers for these events every year. It is amazing to see the outpouring of support that is shown by the local community each year.

The Riverside National Cemetery is both the largest and busiest cemetery managed by the National Cemetery Administration. It was establish in 1976 through the transfer of 740 acres from March Air Force Base, formerly U.S. Army's Camp William G. Haan during World War II. It was officially dedicated and opened for burials on Veteran's Day in 1978. An additional 181 acres was transferred by the Air Force in 2003. The cemetery is home of the Medal of Honor Memorial and is one of the four sites recognized as a National Medal of Honor Memorial Site. Burial in a national cemetery is open to all members of the armed forces and their spouses.