Wreaths Across America at Mountain Home National Cemetery returns December 17

Published 9:03 am Thursday, November 10, 2022

The mission of Wreaths Across America is to Remember the Fallen soldier, Honor those who still serve, and Teach our children the value of the freedoms we all enjoy. This is done in part by placing wreaths on veterans’ graves each December.

For only $15, a family or individual can sponsor a wreath to honor those veterans. The public is asked to help, at whatever level they can, to make this campaign successful. One wreath will honor one veteran.

The date of the Mountain Home placing of wreaths is Dec. 17 at 12 noon, rain or shine.

In 2006, Wreaths Across America placed 17,000 wreaths at 150 locations. In 2009, 164,000 wreaths went to 427 locations. Last year, two million volunteers placed almost 1.8 million wreaths at 1,640 locations. Over a third of those volunteers were children.

There is an area at Mountain Home Cemetery known as Brownlow Circle, which honors area servicemen whose last known status was MIA. Like so many who never came home, they lie elsewhere.

There are approximately 17,000 veterans who are interred at Mountain Home, and each and every one of them has a story. And, like those who are remembered on the Vietnam Memorial Wall, they are more than a name carved on a piece of stone. They might not have anyone, so this is a way for us to keep them and their memory alive.

“The stories from right here in our region are as real as the ones across the nation and around the globe. We do this for them. We do this for the many families that sit at the table with an empty chair for their loved ones, especially during the holidays. Often, that chair will remain empty, never to be occupied again,” said Debra Deegan, location coordinator for Mountain Home National Cemetery.

“Our predecessors at Wreaths Across America Mountain Home have spoken with young widows facing their first Christmas without their husbands; and a mother and father whose son, for the first time, would no longer join them for Christmas. It is because of these brave young men and women who serve, that we are able to be here today. They did not die in service to their country…they died in service to OUR country and, it falls to us to remember and honor them.

“Many of the soldiers laid to rest at Mountain Home National Cemetery have no family members to honor their service. For example, Civil War Veteran, and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, Frederick Clarence Buck, died at the Soldiers’ Home in Mountain Home, Tennessee on July 15, 1905, and was laid to rest in grave number nine, in the first row of section F, at Mountain Home National Cemetery. In the record for “Nearest living relative”, there was no next of kin listed. No cousins, or nieces and nephews we know of ever visited him; only those who come each year to remember and honor all our veterans.

To help Remember and Honor our Veterans, you can sponsor a wreath at www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/17152/overview/

The Mountain Home Ceremony begins promptly at 12 noon on December 17 with the wreath placement afterward…about 12:40 p.m. Ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery will be starting at the same moment.