Wreaths Across America ceremonies honor veterans at holidays

On a freezing Saturday morning, they gathered at a hillside cemetery in Cloverdale to honor the veterans buried there by placing brightly decorated wreaths on the graves ­- a ceremony that played out simultaneously at more than 1,200 locations across America.

“Wreaths Across America” started ?25 years ago as a way for a wreath maker to deal with surplus inventory by putting them on gravesites at Arlington National Cemetery.

Since then, the practice has spread around the country with more than 900,000 remembrance wreaths placed on a single day in December.

About a quarter-million of those are placed at Arlington, but the tradition has spread to cemeteries that include Cloverdale, Sonoma, Yountville and Dixon National Cemetery.

“It’s pretty special. It’s important to value the veterans,” said Lee Smith, a retired Cloverdale resident who served in the Army in Vietnam from 1965 to 1968 and went to the event Saturday, attended by about 100 people. “They give the ultimate sacrifice for this country.”

Al Delsid, the retired Cloverdale Fire Department captain who coordinated the event, said it’s not just about decorating the graves for the holidays but remembering and honoring veterans “and teaching the youth of our country the cost of freedom.”

Some of the young people attending Saturday included members of the U.S. Navy Sea Cadets, Pathfinders and Fire Explorers.

“It’s something you can really be honored to do. It means a lot to the families,” said Abrielle Flick, 12, a sixth-grader from Cloverdale whose grandfather served in Vietnam.

At the Cloverdale Cemetery, there are more than 53 identified graves of veterans. The oldest dates to T.B. Morgan, a veteran of the Mexican War of 1846-48 who served in the Navy. Another of the older gravesites belongs to Charles Smith, a Union veteran of the Civil War and a native of Maine.

It also is the final resting place for veterans of the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and Korean War.

The graveyard essentially stopped taking interments in the 1960s, including veterans who served during the war in Vietnam and more recent conflicts.

Former City Councilman Bob Cox said it’s important to keep the tradition going to honor “the final resting place of our soldiers,” especially as their survivors move or pass away and graves are neglected and sometimes subject to vandalism.

“Our veterans had our backs since day one,” Cox said. “We should show them the respect they’ve earned.”

The Wreaths Across America tradition started in 1992 when a Maine wreath company had a surplus of inventory near the close of the holiday season.

The owner of the company, who had a memorable visit to Arlington National Cemetery as a boy, decided to donate 5,000 wreaths to be placed on graves there, in an older section where there were few visitors.

Nowadays, veterans groups collect contributions to buy the wreaths. Veterans groups in Cloverdale collected $900 toward the cause. Some of the wreaths also were placed at the small Santana Cemetery, where military veterans from the Cloverdale Rancheria are buried.

Saturday’s ceremony at the Cloverdale Cemetery closed with a bugler’s slow, haunting rendition of taps delivered from the hillside above the throng, prior to the invocation.

“May we have peace on earth and goodwill toward men,” said Chaplain Scott Winter.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @clarkmas