Over seventy joined VFW Post 7686 at 6 a.m. Saturday to place flags on veterans’ graves — continuing a tradition rooted in the nation’s oldest act of remembrance Memorial Day Weekend 2026.

Before most of Alamogordo had reached for a first cup of coffee, seventy residents were already standing in the quiet rows of Monte Vista Cemetery, each holding a small American flag. At 6 a.m. Saturday morning, VFW Post 7686 — the Tularosa/Alamogordo post headquartered at 700 Highway 70 West — welcomed a turnout that nearly doubled last year’s volunteer count as the community gathered to mark the graves of local veterans ahead of Memorial Day.

By the time the sun had fully crested the Sacramento Mountains to the east, flags stood upright among the headstones, a sea of red, white, and blue stirring gently in the morning breeze. For those who showed up — VFW members, Auxiliary volunteers, active military personnel, families of veterans, and dozens of ordinary Alamogordo residents — the act was as much personal as it was civic.

At 8 a.m., the group assembled near the cemetery’s flagpole for a public flag-raising ceremony and remembrance service, honoring the men and women of Otero County who gave their lives in service to the nation.

For Post Commander Ryan “Check” Nowaczck, the morning carried a clarity of purpose he wants the broader community to carry through the weekend.

“Memorial Day is a day we honor our fallen service members,” he said. “It’s not for the living — it’s for those who gave the ultimate devotion to our country by giving their lives for all of us.”

He asked that everyone keep fallen comrades and their families in their thoughts and prayers throughout the holiday.

A Tradition Decades in the Making

Post 7686 has been performing this annual flag placement at Monte Vista Cemetery — and Immaculate Conception Cemetery nearby on 1st Street — for decades. Newspaper records dating back decades document the post placing flags on all veterans’ graves ahead of Memorial Day, and longtime members describe the tradition as rooted in the post’s core identity since its earliest years serving the Alamogordo and Tularosa communities.

The precise year the tradition began has been passed down through generations of post commanders rather than formal records, but the continuity is unmistakable: year after year, Post 7686 has ensured that no veteran’s grave at Monte Vista goes unmarked on Memorial Day weekend.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE ORIGINS OF DECORATION DAY

The tradition of placing flags on veterans’ graves stretches back to the Civil War era. On May 5, 1868, Major General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic — a Union veterans organization — issued General Orders No. 11, formally establishing a national Decoration Day on which Americans would decorate soldiers’ graves with flowers. That same year at Arlington National Cemetery, around 5,000 participants honored the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there by placing small American flags on their graves — a practice that has never stopped.

After World War I, the observance expanded to honor the fallen of all American wars, and the holiday gradually became known as Memorial Day. Congress made it an official federal holiday in 1971, designating the last Monday in May. The VFW — founded in 1899 by veterans of the Spanish-American War — adopted the practice of organized grave-flagging through its posts nationwide in the 20th century, becoming one of the primary stewards of the tradition as the Greatest Generation and their successors took up the charge.

As one VFW member observed of the practice: “Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, was all about decorating the graves of the fallen — and that is the tradition we follow even today.”

From Cemetery to Canteen: The Flag Retirement Ceremony

Following the Saturday morning ceremonies, volunteers returned to the VFW Post canteen at 700 Highway 70 West, where Post 7686 hosted a flag retirement ceremony in partnership with Scout Troop 147. Around 40 flags were retired — flags collected over the previous year from community members, veterans’ families, and prior cemetery placements, each one having served its country and deserving a proper farewell.

“We retired around 30 to 40 flags with Scout Troop 147 to honor the numerous flags that have served our country as well,” Commander Nowaczck said. “We at the VFW are grateful for everyone’s effort today.”

The flag retirement ceremony is one of the most solemn rituals in American civic life, and the Boy Scouts of America is one of the few organizations in the country with a formal, codified protocol for it. The U.S. Flag Code itself mandates that a flag “when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

The Scouts take this charge seriously. Each flag is carefully unfolded, displayed one final time to those gathered, then respectfully folded into the traditional triangular shape before being committed to the fire. The ceremony is conducted in near-silence, with Scouts and guests standing at attention as the flames consume the cloth completely. The ashes are then buried.

The symbolism layered into the ceremony is profound. As Boy Scouts describe it during the ritual: the red stripes represent the lifeblood of the brave men and women willing to die for this country; the white stripes stand for purity of purpose and deed; and the blue field holding the fifty stars represents the union itself — the nation these veterans swore to protect. To commit the worn flag to fire is not an act of destruction but of liberation: the physical symbol has served its purpose; the ideals it embodied cannot be burned.

The partnership between VFW Post 7686 and the local Scouts reflects a passing of the torch that runs through the entire day’s events — veterans who once served now teaching the next generation what service means, and young Scouts demonstrating, through solemn ceremony, that they understand the weight of it.

A Community That Showed Up

What was perhaps most striking about Saturday’s gathering was who came. VFW Post 7686 and its Auxiliary provided the organizational backbone, but the seventy who filled Monte Vista Cemetery at dawn included neighbors, students, military families, and community members to honor those this 

For Post Commander Nowaczck, that broader turnout is exactly the point — “Memorial Day belongs not only to veterans’ organizations but to every American who benefits from the sacrifice being honored.”

The flags placed Saturday morning will remain standing through Memorial Day on Monday, May 25. Post members will return that evening at 5 p.m. for flag retrieval and cemetery cleanup, completing the weekend’s circle of honor. Anyone wishing to volunteer for the retrieval or to contact Post 7686 about future events can reach the post at (575) 437-0770 or vfwpost7686@beyondbb.com.

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