Christiansburg’s American Legion Post 59 and VFW Post 5311 will host a weekend of fellowship and remembrance throughout Memorial Day weekend.
The groups will be a hosting a breakfast, placing flags at cemeteries and welcoming the community to an evening ceremony at Sunset Cemetery on Monday.
The two posts will meet for breakfast and camaraderie at 8 a.m., Saturday, May 26 at Country Cookin (2020 Roanoke Road) in Christiansburg.
“After that we, along with the local Boy and Cub Scout Troop 145, we’ll place a flag at the grave site of each veteran in Christiansburg,” Joe Straub, of the Christiansburg American Legion post, said.
The Boy Scout troop along with Cub Scout Pack 145 has helped with the honor of posting flags at the graves of veterans for 14 years.
Working together, the groups post more than 900 flags to mark veterans’ graves at Sunset and Schaffer cemeteries.
The posts welcome the entire community to the evening Memorial Day ceremony at 6:30 p.m. at Sunset Cemetery, (501 S Franklin St., Christiansburg).
The VFW Post 5311, and American Legion Post 59 and the Marine Corp League have held the evening ceremony for, it is thought, at least 30 years, according to long-serving member and former American Legion commander, Omar Ross.
Christiansburg Mayor Michael Barber will be the speaker this year. Barber served in the US Army Reserves through the Vietnam years 1967-1973 and attained the rank of Sergeant.
In addition to decades of Memorial Day events, the two veteran’s posts work together throughout the year supporting veterans, playing baseball, tending memorials such as the Audie Murphy Memorial on Brush Mountain in Catawba and marching in the Veterans’ Day parade.
The American Legion meets at 6:30 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month (except in January) at the Leonard E. McCoy building in Christiansburg, on 490 High St., the same street as Shaffer Memorial Church. The VFW also meets at the Leonard E. McCoy building.
More Memorial Day events will be published in Saturday’s edition of the News Messenger.