Volunteers make sure veterans are honored in Valley

BOARDMAN, Ohio (WKBN) – Local volunteers took time out of their day to make sure veterans in our area were honored ahead of Memorial Day.

There are 2,016 veterans laid to rest at Forrest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery on Boardman. Volunteers planted American flags on each grave.

One of them is Leo Connelly Jr. He’s never really left the Army.

“I’m 50 years from Vietnam. I can remember it like I was sitting in the jungle right now,” he said.

Now, he is serving his country in a different way.

“This means the world to me to let my brothers and sisters know that I just didn’t stop in March ’68 when I came home. I continue servicing my community, and I’ll do it probably until the day I die,” Connelly said.

Connelly is a Purple Heart recipient and was stabbed in combat.

“It doesn’t go away. You just learn how to live with it. That’s its own battle,” he said.

Connelly recruited an army of volunteers to take up his new mission, this time on home soil, planting flags at the headstones of fallen soldiers at Forst Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Boardman.

“This is a great way for us to show our respect and honor for the sacrifices these 2016 veterans made here,” Connelly said.

And it’s not just in Boardman, in volunteers will place about 40,000 flags in 32 different locations in Mahoning County.

Christopher Derr was there to help.

“When we step to the grave, we come to a point of attention. We say a little prayer in our mind and we salute the gravestone,” Derr said.

It’s a small gesture, the tiniest thank you that’s bringing people together — helping share what this Memorial Day weekend is really all about.

“We saw some of the other kids mimicking us, some of them saluting with the off-hand. We don’t mind, because they’re asking and they’re interested. We want to share what we do and why we do it,” Derr said.

It’s about honor, education and embracing the brotherhood that’s linked generations of military veterans.

“I think of the bodies that I carried of the soldiers. And I’ve carried a lot of bodies out of the jungle. I think of those guys. I think of their families and the grief that they’re going through,” Connelly said. “To see these flags, someone cared. Someone cared enough to say, ‘He sacrificed for me, I’ll sacrifice for him.'”

The flags will remain in place through July 5. That’s when volunteers will once again be out to help pick them up.

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