The Cemetery Club.

Jack Rasmussen places a flag on a veteran’s grave.

By Rob Alway, Editor-in-Chief. 

LUDINGTON — Each year since the early 1900s, a group of veterans gathers about a week before Memorial Day and places flags on the graves of veterans in Lakeview and Pere Marquette cemeteries, a similar ritual takes place at the other cemeteries in the county. The group is a tradition that has been carried on through the generations. Today, its organizer is Budde Reed, who once tagged along in the cemetery with his father, Milan, a World War II pilot who passed away earlier this year. The men each have a section in the two cemeteries and take the task of placing the flags very seriously. Most of them pause and salute before moving on to the next grave. By the time they are done, over 2,000 flags will have been placed.

“It’s a tremendous privilege and an honor,” Budde Reed, a US Air Force veteran who served in the Vietnam War, said.

Jack Rasmussen, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, has been part of the club for over 45 years. His uncle was one of the founders of the club. “Once you’ve been in a war you get addicted to paying memories to those who didn’t come back.”

Memorial Day is Monday, May 30. It is a day set aside to remember service men and women who died in the line of duty.

See more in the above video.