Seasonal & Holidays
'Flag For Every Hero' Event Planned This Weekend At Riverside National Cemetery
American flags will be placed at nearly 250,000 burial plots at the cemetery.
RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Flag placements are on track for Saturday at Riverside National Cemetery in observance of Veterans Day, and anyone who would like to take part was invited to join the all-volunteer mission.
Garden Grove-based Honoring Our Fallen said the "Flag for Every Hero" event will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, staging near the cemetery Amphitheater, 22495 Van Buren Blvd.
Miniature Stars & Stripes will be planted adjacent to the markers for nearly 250,000 burial plots.
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Traditionally, the nonprofit's volunteers have included Boy Scout troops, Civil Air Patrol cadets, members of various unions and their families, former military personnel and others, deploying just prior to Veterans Day for a four-hour walk throughout the cemetery's 900 acres, comprising 70 sections in all.
The flags will be retrieved the day after, and volunteers will be needed then, as well.
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The flag walk was cancelled last November, when Honoring Our Fallen CEO Laura Herzog pointed out that "significant staffing reductions" at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Cemetery Administration stemming from a weeks-long government shutdown had impacted everything from facilities maintenance to traffic control at the cemetery.
Though the VA didn't expressly prohibit the flag walk, Honoring Our Fallen ultimately decided it wasn't advisable.
The walks, first organized in 2012, are conducted not only on Veterans Day but also Memorial Day weekend. Both were rescinded in 2020 because of the COVID-19 lockdowns but returned in 2021.
When they first started, volunteers were able to reach only 21,000 grave sites. In 2014, organizers were able to procure enough flags and enlist a sufficient number of people to plant the miniature Stars & Stripes next to just about all of the final resting places of individuals interred at the cemetery.
Since then, the number of volunteers has grown significantly. The cemetery is the third-largest of its kind in the nation.
Additional information is available at honoringourfallen.org/events/veterans-day-2026-flag-placement/.
