HAMPTON, Va. — A tradition continued Thursday at the Hampton National Cemetery. Volunteers placed American flags on the graves ahead of Memorial Day.
While the flags themselves are a tradition, for Air Force veteran Henry Miller placing them is also a tradition. He was volunteering for the fifth year when News 3 interviewed him for this story.
“Just to pay respects to our comrades that have passed on before," Miller responded when asked why he volunteers. "Some of the widows are buried out here as well.”
Watch: Volunteers plant flags at Hampton National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day event
Along with veterans, active duty service members and cemetery staff also helped place the flags.
“You don’t know when you’ll be laid to rest, so you would hope that somebody would come and do the same thing," Miller said.
A sentiment shared by the Cemetery Director Micha Lee. He oversees both national cemeteries in Hampton and the ones in Richmond.
Watch: Volunteers place hundreds of flags at Hampton National Cemetery
“My staff and myself are all veterans. So, one day we may be laid to rest in a national cemetery so we would like to be rendered with the same honors that we are providing today," Lee explained.
Combined, the two cemeteries in Hampton had about 25,000 graves as of 2026.
The placement of flags mimics the “Flags In” tradition, the formal name for the process, started in 1948, of placing flags on the graves in Arlington National Cemetery each year.
The flags at the cemeteries in Hampton will be up for a week and then will be taken down and put away until 2027. If you would like to help pick them up, the pick up will start at 9 a.m. May 28.
“It’s just an hour to be able to come to work and do what I do every single day," said Lee.
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