SAN ANTONIO – Hundreds of people gathered at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on Monday morning to honor the men and women who lost their lives defending the nation.
“I’m a veteran and it’s always been in my heart. I take it very seriously. I come every year and visit my uncle. I appreciate what they did for us, the fallen soldiers and I think it’s very important that we honor them and let them know we are thinking about them,” Adolfo Torres, a veteran said.
People traveled from across the country for the first public Memorial Day ceremony at the cemetery since 2019.
“Memorial Day is not just for veterans who may have fallen during the war, but also those who may been wounded during the war but survived for another two years and then they were entered here in the ceremony. Because the first time we did this was back in 2012 and we read the names of the 76,000 veterans who entered in this cemetery,” Robert Masten, Rt. Sergeant Major of the Army.
During this morning’s ceremony, they also remembered the 21 lives lost in Uvalde.
Also back this year, the tradition of placing flags at each grave.
Volunteers from the nonprofit Flags for Fallen Vets placed them at the graves on Sunday.
