Decorating Woodland tradition for Ironton

 

Motorists driving on U.S. 52 will see American flags waving in the wind from the overpass at Woodland Cemetery as Memorial Day approaches.

“We want the cemetery to look nice for when people go through the cemetery and people driving underneath,” Brent Chamberlin, Memorial Day Parade Committee member and past Grand Marshal, said. “We want people to recognize what Memorial Day is all about.”

Along with Chamberlin, other parade committee members Phillip Bante and James Rowe helped put up the flags.

The flags will be kept up this week and the week following Memorial Day, Chamberlin said.

Other upcoming Memorial Day events include the Navy Night Memorial Service at 7 p.m. Thursday at Center Street Landing in Ironton with Lt. Cmdr. Michael Raymer as the guest speaker. Raymer has won numerous awards including two Navy Commendation Medals, an Air Force Commendation Medal, three Navy Achievement Medals, an Air Force Achievement Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal, NATO/ISAF Medal, and Expert Marksman Medals for both rifle and various other unit and personal weapons.

There will also be a Veterans Memorial Service on Sunday at Soldiers Plot of the Woodland Cemetery at 2 p.m. where Lt. Cmdr. Robert Webb will speak. Webb enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in 1999. Currently, Webb is the executive officer of the United States Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit in Huntington.