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Tallahassee VFW Holds Memorial Day Service Despite Pandemic

American Flags stick out from tombstone crosses inside the VFW cemetary.
Robbie Gaffney
/
WFSU-FM
Attendees of Tallahassee's VFW memorial day service placed flags on the graves of soldiers.

Tallahassee's Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) held a memorial day service despite concerns of spreading the coronavirus. Members say it was important to respect solders who have passed.

Families and retired service members gathered inside the gates of the VFW Cemetary. They're holding a ceremony to honor soldiers who lost their lives. Attendees salute a flag at half-staff and place flowers and wreaths near the flag pole. Afterward, people will break off to place small flags on the graves of soldiers. Debora Jones Mann is a VFW member who took part in the ceremony.

"I don't want the pandemic to have these veterans not be honored. It's really important that they get remembered, and they get honored because they have served the ultimate sacrifice, and if it [were] not for them, we would all not have our freedoms that we—that we don't even think about, we kind of take them for granted," Mann says.

She says the pandemic isn't stopping those in the military from serving their country.

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Another VFW member, Frank Roycraft, says that ceremony has gone on for a long time.

"And hopefully will go on as long as there's a United States of America to remember these people, and to let us all fully appreciate the freedoms that we have because of the sacrifices that were made by these people," Roycraft says.

Robbie Gaffney graduated from Florida State University with degrees in Digital Media Production and Creative Writing. Before working at WFSU, they recorded FSU’s basketball and baseball games for Seminole Productions as well as interned for the PBS Station in Largo, Florida. Robbie loves playing video games such as Shadow of the Colossus, Animal Crossing, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. Their other hobbies include sleeping and watching anime.