National Wreaths Across America Day 2023 offers chance to honor veterans

On Dec. 16, 2023 National Wreaths Across America Day, the CGSC Foundation helped honor veterans’ graves at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery with wreaths of remembrance.

CGSC Foundation Interim President/CEO Lora Morgan places a wreath to honor a veteran on national Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 16, 2023, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

The morning began with the arrival of the wreaths in Walmart trucks escorted by VFW riders and other volunteers. Walmart provides transportation for Wreaths Across America each year. After the wreaths were unloaded and positioned on the edges of the sections of the cemetery, Diana Pitts, the Wreaths Across America location coordinator for the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery, led a ceremony at the flagpole with a flag detail manned by local high school junior ROTC cadets. Memorial flags for each service were posted, followed by a three rifle volley and playing of taps. Attendees were then invited to place the wreaths on veteran graves.

After the wreath laying, the Foundation hosted a reception at the Frontier Army Museum for all volunteers.

The Wreaths Across America mission is to remember the fallen, honor those who serve and teach the next generation the value of freedom. The CGSC Foundation is one of many sponsor groups for the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery that works to support this mission. Thanks to everyone that sponsored a wreath through the CGSC Foundation. We now begin our campaign for 2024. All wreaths sponsored through the CGSC Foundation from Dec. 16, 2023, through Jan. 16, 2024, will be matched by the WAA headquarters. – Click the link below to sponsor a wreath and help us get a head start on WAA Day 2024!

If you missed WAA on Dec. 16, you can still help honor veterans by helping us pick up all the wreaths on Jan. 21, 2024 at 10 a.m.

All wreaths sponsored through the CGSC Foundation from Dec. 16, 2023, through Jan. 16, 2024, will be matched by the WAA headquarters. – Click the link below to help us get a head start on WAA Day 2024!

For more photos from WAA Day 2023, see the CGSC Foundation Flickr album

Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to continue and expand the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992. The organization’s mission – Remember, Honor, Teach – is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreath-laying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at thousands of veterans’ cemeteries and other locations in all 50 states and beyond.

The Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery was established in 1862 as one of 14 national cemeteries at that time. Today the cemetery has more than 23,000 graves of veterans representing every conflict since 1812. Notable veterans buried at Fort Leavenworth include Captain James Allen, 1st U.S. Dragoons, who died in August 1846. Allen’s is the oldest known military grave in the cemetery. Also, the remains of Brigadier General Leavenworth, the fort’s namesake, were disinterred from Woodland Cemetery in Delhi, N.Y., and reinterred in the national cemetery on Memorial Day in 1902. Nine Medal of Honor recipients are also buried there, including Capt. Thomas W. Custer, brother of Lt. Col. George Custer. Thomas received the Medal of Honor twice while serving in the U.S. Army, Company B, 6th Michigan Cavalry; first for capturing the flag at Namozine Church, Virginia, on May 3, 1865, and second for actions at Sailor’s Creek, Virginia, April 1865. Custer died in 1876.

Volunteers lay wreaths on veterans’ graves during national Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 16, 2023, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

A view of section P of the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery on national Wreaths Across America day, Dec. 16, 2023, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.