In preparation of Memorial Day, LBCC’s Veterans Services Office (VSO) placed over two thousand American flags at the LAC A Quad from Monday to Wednesday to honor fallen veterans.
The VSO, which is mainly composed of student veterans under work study programs, offers assistance for veterans and their dependents.
Student veterans and volunteers placed the flags from 6 a.m. until midday with a precise and linear formation guideline.
Andrew Thackerson, an Afghanistan veteran and student who arrived early in the morning to assist in flag placement, shared that the flags represented the bigger picture of veteran lives lost both on and off duty and their sacrifices.
“Being in the military, you do a lot of things where you’re going to suffer, but it’s never about the current moment, it’s always about what you’re building up to,” Thackerson said.
LBCC student and veteran Gabriel Zuniga, who has assisted with the flag placements for the past three years, discussed that the transition back to civilian life is something that some veterans struggle to overcome.
“I’ve had a few individuals who I’ve lost personally that are close to me that I served with, and they not only made the sacrifice on the line of duty, but have also suffered from PTSD even though they came back and they unfortunately took their own lives…even though they did their time and served, up until their last day on this earth were they still dealing with those kinds of mental health issues, it’s unfortunate,” Zuniga said.
Zuniga and Thackerson clarified that Memorial Day was more of a remembrance of life rather than a celebration.
“It does sometimes kind of hit hard when there’s people who aren’t knowledgeable of what the day is about. Most take that day off, that’s understandable, but the main thing is that there’s a cost to freedom… doing the actual planting of the flags, you’re thinking about what you’re doing and how to show respect, so we do our best to make sure they’re placed in order and not broken or damaged,” Zuniga said.
Thackerson recounted his own mental health experiences as a combat veteran and believed that assistance for veterans such as the help provided by the VSO is crucial.
“There were some tough times when I was coming back… the unfortunate part is every vet is a different case. I was a mechanic, so when you’re serving, you have to do your job… this is how this works and you go apply it to 400 different vehicles. That’s how we were taught, and unfortunately it really sticks to you and it’s very hard when you have to do things like math for example where every step is just one line,” Thackerson said.
A closing ceremony was held at the A quad at 11 a.m. on Thursday, and marked the end of preparations with a sounding of “Taps” over speakers at midday.
Vietnam veteran and student James Goodman and Zuniga voiced that the ceremony should have received more coverage from LBCC, citing an email sent out by the school for an LGBTQ flag raising at TTC on the same day as an example.
“It’s nothing against what they do, it’s their prerogative, but it’d be better with equality. Memorial Day is about veterans and what they fought for, so once we educate the community to understand that, that’s how we build a stronger community, especially because we veterans have lost a lot,” Goodman said.
The flags will stand over the weekend until Tuesday when classes resume.