A Wreath for Every Grave
By Marshall Manson Posted in Spotlight Blogs | War — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
A few weeks ago, for Veterans Day, I wrote a column urging Americans -- especially those of us who haven't served -- to transform their appreciation into action.
Today comes this column from the Washington Post's Mark Fisher describing a man from Maine named Morrill Worcester who had an idea -- to adorn the graves at Arlington National Cemetery with wreaths for Christmas. It seems, thanks to Christmas products business, that he had extras. So he drove down and, with some friends, walked the rows, laying a red-bowed wreath on each grave. He began this tradition more than a decade ago, and he's done it each year since.
Read on . . .
Then, a few months ago, the e-mails started. Maybe you got one: a heart-wrenching yet elegant image of Worcester's wreaths, each adorned with a simple red ribbon, resting in front of seemingly endless rows of identical gravestones on a snowy day at Arlington. Beneath the photo, a few lines of poetry:
"Rest easy, sleep well my brothers.
Know the line has held, your job is done.
Rest easy, sleep well . . . "
And then just a paragraph about Worcester's annual pilgrimage.
Thanks to the e-mail, this year, Mr. Worcester will have some company.
A week from today, Worcester will leave Columbia Falls, Maine, to lead the trailer full of wreaths down the coast. This time, it won't be just the trucker, Worcester and his wife, Karen. This time, there'll be an escort of a couple hundred Patriot Guard Riders, a national group of motorcyclists who take it upon themselves to display their respect for fallen service members.
This time, Worcester and friends won't barrel down the interstate; they're taking the slow road, Route 1, so that more motorcyclists -- perhaps thousands more -- might join the caravan.
This time, the wreath-laying won't be a private affair. Instead of the 10 or 12 volunteers who had been rounded up in past years by Wayne Hanson, a retired federal law enforcement officer who lives in Springfield, at least 500 people will be ready to help lay the wreaths Dec. 14 -- and maybe many more.
There will be a busload of school kids from Skowhegan, Maine, a Civil Air Patrol unit from up that way and all manner of Washington-area volunteers, too.
And Worcester wants us to know that this isn't about politics -- one way or the other.
Worcester has always returned the checks that people send him. The wreath-laying is his personal statement: "This is the least we can do."
Everyone connected with the wreath project takes pains to note that it has nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with anyone's opinion about Iraq or terrorism.
"It's just a way to pay respect," Hanson says. "When I came home from Vietnam, well, it wasn't the best time to be in the military, or to be coming home. But this -- it brings tears to my eyes to see 5,000 wreaths laid out across those white government headstones. You can't think about anything but that ultimate sacrifice these people made to give us our freedom."
Mr. Worcester's simple gesture has attracted so much attention that there's a website for it. http://wreathsacrossamerica.org/ It has the photo and the text of the e-mail, and a lot more -- including information about how you can involved with a wreath laying at a military cemetery in your area -- there are more than 200 locations this year.
For my own part, I just want to thank Mr. Worcester and his band of helpers. We would all do well to learn a lesson from their example.