Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

One woman’s mission: Flags dotting resting place of fallen troops on Veterans Day

Dawn and Andrew Kramer

Courtesy

Dawn Kramer is shown with her father, Andrew Kramer, in 2003 at his home in Las Vegas.

Andrew Kramer was buried in the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery in 2005 with shrapnel from the Korean War still lodged in his back.

He survived the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in 1950 fighting over frozen ground as a teenager in what is considered one of most brutal battles of the Korean War. He was one of the American soldiers with the honorable nickname, “The Chosin Few.”

Last year, his daughter Dawn Kramer traveled from her home in Michigan to post a handheld American flag at his grave for Veterans Day.

Dawn Kramer expected to see the cemetery lined with flags like hers for the federal holiday honoring those who served. But flags are only placed by volunteers on Memorial Day in May, when the nation pays respect to those who died while serving.

“I was in disbelief — there was no flag on any veterans' graves ... this is Veterans Day and I’m in a veteran cemetery and there are no flags,” she said.

She’s out to change that.

On the morning of Monday, Nov. 9, two days before Veterans Day, she intends to place flags at the gravesites of all 1,300 people — veterans and their spouses — in the section of the cemetery where her father is buried. (To volunteer to help or for more information, see the Just Serve site.) Despite living off unemployment, Kramer tightened her budget to buy 1,400 8-by-12 inch flags.

She sold some belongings and limited her shopping to a diet of too many meals of eggs and potatoes. It’s a small price to pay to celebrate veterans like her dad.

“Honoring a veteran means more to me than a pair of boots or a purse,” she said.

Kramer proudly talks about her father’s service. He suffered frostbite during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir and later experienced a sensitivity to cold that caused such excruciating pain that he left his home in Michigan for Las Vegas in the 1970s with hopes of never seeing a harsh winter again.

The others at the Boulder City cemetery, which houses 40,000 veterans and their spouses, surely have a similar story of sacrifice, which is why Kramer is so passionate about the flag project. She eventually hopes to place flags in more sections.

She said she coordinated with Allegiant Air, a Las Vegas-based carrier, and Station Casinos for free travel and lodging. She’ll start placing flags Nov. 8 to get the cemetery decorated in time for an early-morning ceremony on Veterans Day.

The Southern Nevada Patriot Guard Riders, a nonprofit providing services for veteran memorial events, will give a 21-gun salute at the cemetery and play taps, a bugle call for flag ceremonies and military funerals, she said.

She is looking for the community’s help to post the flags and can be reached at [email protected].

“I’m only one person. I can’t do this alone,” she said.