For decades World War II veteran Bob Palmer of Brewster has been placing flags on the graves of veterans buried in all 12 cemeteries in the Town of Southeast. At 92 years old, he needed some help.
Through the of teacher Rob Gallacher and Marine Corps veteran Jack Duncan, students from the high school and middle school came out to help along with boy scouts, girl scouts, cubscouts, The Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Elks and Veteran's organizations, placing 341 American flags at the graves of veterans buried in the Milltown Cemetery alone Saturday morning.
"More than 1,200 veterans are buried in the town's cemeteries and unfortunately, that number is growing," Duncan said. "There aren't many WW II vets left and now we're starting to lose a lot of Korean War guys. Plus we have two wars going on right now."
Gallacher brought Palmer out to Milltown where he and Duncan gave students a history lesson about who was buried in the cemetery and their significance to the history of the town.
Other groups were assigned to other cemeteries performing the task which Palmer had done by himself, grave by grave in each cemetery for years. Duncan nicknamed the event "The Bob Palmer Project" and hopes to continue it as a community effort from now on.
