Scouts’ Flags Honor Fallen Veterans in L.A.

They were born in the 1980s, have at best a fuzzy recollection of the Gulf War, and draw their notions of warfare from video games and movies like “Saving Private Ryan.”

But Saturday morning about 4,000 Boy and Girl Scouts learned well the cost war has inflicted throughout American history. In what has become an annual pre-Memorial Day tradition, Scouts from throughout the county descended on Los Angeles National Cemetery in Westwood to plant American flags on the graves of 85,000 U.S. veterans, honoring the soldiers who gave their lives for freedom.

It’s a sacrifice and a freedom that isn’t fully appreciated by these kids, who have known only peace and prosperity, said one parent.

“These kids don’t understand--haven’t a clue--what freedom is, and what got us here,” said Michael Kaiser, whose 10-year-old son Spencer was one of the Scouts.

“We have had such long-term peace, all the younger generations just have no sense of what has gotten us to this point,” he said. “We take it for granted. We get up in the morning, no one tells us what to do, where to go.”

Kaiser said he made the drive from Malibu to impart a little history to his son, a member of Boy Scout Troop 223.

Saturday’s lesson: “If this country hadn’t jumped in [to the world wars], the tide of events could’ve been very, very different,” he explained.

In addition to saluting veterans and providing a valued community service, the flag placement also represented the first experience at a cemetery for many Scouts, said Charles Vezzetti, a Boy Scout troop leader and coordinator of the event.

In a society that prefers to sweep any discussion of death and dying under the carpet, it helps to give kids “an understanding of a cemetery--that it isn’t a sad place, particularly,” Vezzetti said.

The morning began with a ceremony that included an address by ex-astronaut Bill Botts, who at one time also held the world land-speed record. Scouts then fanned out across the sprawling 115-acre cemetery, planting the two-foot-tall U.S. flags in front of headstones and memorial markers.

A project that used to take a small band of Boy Scouts most of the day was all but completed in an hour Saturday. For their dutiful efforts, Scouts received red, white and blue patches to sew onto their uniforms.

“I appreciate what every one of these people did,” said Justin Yang, 16, a member of Troop 137 in Westwood who’s participated in the event for five years. “The first time we did it, I was 11. I didn’t know. I got a patch, and then I went home. I didn’t really think about it.

“[Now] when I see this, it affects me. Not personally, because no one that I know was in the war--but looking out at all these flags, it gives me a good feeling to know that all these Scouts came together . . . to appreciate and celebrate the American fallen soldiers.”

Indeed, for younger Scouts, the idea of sacrificing a life for one’s country is so intangible as to take on mythological proportions, at least in the mind of one. “It’s like a legend, sort of. Like the Loch Ness monster,” explained 8-year-old James Medina, a Cub Scout from West Hills.

Seeing veterans’ graves up close should bring a little reality to the Scouts’ notion of war, and what is often at stake.

“They might have understood a little bit about Desert Storm, but that was such a short-lived event. It really doesn’t put in perspective what really happens [in war],” Vezzetti said. “This is a way to personalize it.”