Post 1336 teams with Ace, NHS to place flags on graves of US soldiers

TEN MEMBERS OF Coal City High School’s National Honor Society joined members of St. Juvin Post 1336 in placing American flags on veterans graves. The flags were donated to the post by Ace Hardware and Whitmore Are Hardware in Coal City. Photo courtesy of Bill Bomba/St. Juvin Post 1336

In recognition of the men and women who gave of themselves to serve in the armed forces, and to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country, St. Juvin Post 1336 Veterans of Foreign Wars took steps to ensure the graves of these heroes were decorated with an American flag.
On Friday, May 10, 10 members of the Coal City High School Chapter of the National Honor Society and their faculty sponsor Cathy Lyons placed U.S. flags on the identified graves of veterans resting at Braceville Gardner Cemetery.
In honor of Memorial Day, Ace Hardware is giving away 1 million American flags through a collaboration with the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The 8X12 inch stick flags are given to VFW Posts across the nation for placement on veterans graves.
This is the second year flags were provided to Post 1336 and placed by National Honor Society members, and this is the fourth year Post 1336 has supplied flags to the cemetery as part of their commitment to veterans and the community.
Whitmore Ace Hardware in Coal City provided 288 flag to St. Juvin Post and an additional 240 flags were direct shipped to the Post.
Braceville Gardner Cemetery is the final resting place for nearly 500 veterans whose time of service ranges from the War of 1812 through Vietnam and to the present day.
Before the 1999 opening of the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood most local veterans were buried here and some still are interred in family plots..
The placing of flags at Braceville Gardner has special meaning for the members of St. Juvin Post 1336 as one of the veterans resting there is its first commander, John Herron Jr., who passed in 1942. Herron was a Spanish-American War veteran of C Company, 1st Battalion, Wyoming Volunteer Infantry who served in the Philippines.