No grave left behind as region honors its war dead

Steve Woodman, left, and William Prentice of American Legion Post 214 of Lebanon honor the nation's war dead by planting flags on Wednesday at Prospect Hill Cemetery in West Lebanon. (Lebanon Voice photos/Harrison Thorp)

WEST LEBANON - For Steve Woodman, William Prentice and Phillip Goodwin, there was no better way to spend a sun-splashed May afternoon.

The three Lebanon American Legion Post 214 members pulled up to the Prospect Hill Cemetery in a pickup truck loaded with American flags to fulfill the time-honored tradition of decorating each serviceman's grave with their country's colors prior to Memorial Day.

"It's an honor to look after our veterans," Prentice said.

"We spend a couple of days doing this," Woodman said. "It's nothing compared to what they did for this country, for us. Plus we get to see parts of town we never would have seen."

Scores of servicemen's graves are scattered throughout the Lebanon countryside, many of them deep in woods far from the road, and Woodman said the three of them had trudged up and down hills to get to each and every one of them.

Phillip Goodwin of Lebanon American Legion Post 214 decorates servicemen's graves with new American flags at the Prospect Hill Cemetery on Wednesday.

Prior to getting to the Prospect Hill Cemetery, they had adorned a Civil War veteran's gravesite that lay halfway up a steep hill about a 10-minute walk in from Dixon Road.

In all, more than 340 flags will be placed at the headstones of departed Lebanon servicemen before the trio's task is complete, including veterans from the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 on up to modern times.

"They sacrificed for us. It's the least we can do for them," Prentice said.