Flag walk at Riverside National Cemetery honors nation's veterans

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (CNS) -- Several thousand volunteers gathered Saturday to place miniature American flags alongside nearly 225,000 graves at Riverside National Cemetery as part of a Veterans Day tribute.

"Paying tribute to those buried at Riverside National Cemetery is truly an honor we should all take great pride in," Brennan Leininger of Garden Grove-based Honoring Our Fallen said.

The flag walks began at 8 a.m. in front of the cemetery Amphitheater. Volunteers left from there to canvass all 70 sections of the hallowed grounds to plant the Stars & Stripes.

Flag retrievals are set for Tuesday morning.

The walks, first organized in 2012, are conducted not only on Veterans Day but also Memorial Day weekend. Both were nixed in 2020 because of the COVID lockdowns but returned in 2021.

A variety of organizations typically have members participating, including the Boy Scouts, police Explorers, Civil Air Patrol cadets, union workers and their relatives.

When they first started, volunteers were able to reach only 21,000 grave sites. In 2014, organizers were able to procure enough flags and enlist a sufficient number of people to plant the Stars & Stripes next to just about all of the final resting places of individuals interred at the cemetery.

Since then, the number of volunteers has grown significantly.

Leininger, a former U.S. Air Force serviceman who became an Anaheim police officer, visited the cemetery in 2011 and was dismayed by how few flags were flying, prompting him to start the placements, with the help of the nonprofit Honoring Our Fallen.

Eventually, his group joined with Riverside resident Mary Ellen Gruendyke to ensure all graves receive a flag. Gruendyke had contributed money and time to the effort long before 2012.

The 1,000-acre national cemetery is the third-largest of its kind in the nation.