Members of the American Legion Post 102, the V.I. Chapter Tuskegee Airmen and volunteers, braved the rain Saturday morning on St. Croix to place flags on the graves of veterans interred at the Kingshill Cemetery.
“This is not ‘happy Memorial Day,’” 1st Vice Commander Annie Henry said. “This is honoring and remembering those who have fallen.”
Henry estimated that the group would end up placing around 750 flags throughout the cemetery that morning, in addition to other resting places across the island. This Memorial Day, she said she wants Virgin Islanders to remember the living veterans as well as those who have passed, and she noted that the freedoms enjoyed by so many Americans are “not cheap.”
“We wouldn’t be here if they were cheap, because we wouldn’t be honoring those that have fallen,” she said.
Despite the high percentage of Virgin Islanders who serve in the armed forces, Post 102 Commander Secundino Roman-Cruz said that the territory’s veterans face greater challenges than their counterparts on the mainland, particularly when it comes to accessing health care.
“The costs that we put on the veterans to get the treatment that they should get for free is unfair,” he said. “Sometimes they have to travel, and then they will get reimbursement sometimes — but at a later time. It’s not that they come and are handed tickets and they get the money back immediately.”
Roman-Cruz lauded the work of V.I. Veterans Affairs Director Patrick Farrell but urged community members to show their support too.
Ceremonies to commemorate territory veterans have been planned for all three islands at 9 a.m. Monday. On St. John, a wreath-laying ceremony will be held at the Franklin Powell Park in Cruz Bay. On St. Croix, the ceremony will be held at the Verne I. Richards Veterans Memorial Park. On St. Thomas, the ceremony will be held in the Veteran Section of the Eastern Cemetery in Smith Bay.
