More than 77K flags placed at graves in Massachusetts National Cemetery
Tens of thousands of American flags have been placed at the graves of Massachusetts men and women who bravely served their country in honor of Memorial Day.
There is a sea of stars and stripes at the Massachusetts National Cemetery in Bourne after volunteers placed more than 77,000 flags on Saturday.
Robert Black, a 93-year-old veteran of the Korean War, was among those who paid their respects at the cemetery during the weekend. Black, who served nearly 42 years in the military, took in the patriotic display with his daughter, Linda Black Jones, who was among the volunteers who placed flags by the gravesites.
"We stand on their shoulders and the reason we can be here is because they're not," Black Jones said.
"It's amazing. I feel very proud to be part of it," Black said.
The Memorial Day tradition at the Massachusetts National Cemetery was started over a decade ago by Gold Star father Paul Monti.
Monti, a Raynham resident, was the father of U.S. Army Sgt. First Class Jared Monti, who was killed in action on June 21, 2006, while serving with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan.
While visiting his son's grave on the first Veterans Day after he died, Paul Monti noticed that there weren't any American flags placed on his son's grave nor on any of the graves at the National Cemetery in Bourne.
Monti was told that flags on the grave sites would interfere with groundskeeping, which inspired him to get the policy changed and start Operation Flags for Vets — an organization that places tens of thousands of flags on the graves at the Massachusetts National Cemetery every Memorial Day and Veterans Day.
During the first Operation Flags for Vets event on Memorial Day 2011, Monti revealed in an interview with NPR that he still drove his son's pickup truck as a way of remembering him. Nashville songwriter Connie Harrington heard the interview on the program "Here and Now" and was inspired to write the song "I Drive Your Truck." The song, co-written by Jessi Alexander and Jimmy Yeary, was recorded by country artist Lee Brice in 2012.
"I Drive Your Truck" rose to No. 1 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart in April 2013 and won the 2013 Country Music Association's award for Song of the Year, as well as the 2014 Academy of Country Music's award for Song of the Year.
Paul Monti died in August 2022 at the age of 76 after he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer.
Jared Monti, 30, died after running into enemy fire multiple times while trying to rescue a wounded soldier. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in September 2009. Paul Monti accepted the medal, the American military's highest decoration for valor, on his son's behalf.
