National Wreaths Across America Day 2024 honors the fallen

On Dec. 14, 2023 National Wreaths Across America Day, the CGSC Foundation along with dozens of other volunteers and groups honored veterans at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery with wreaths of remembrance.

CGSC Foundation President/CEO Lora Morgan places a wreath to honor a veteran on national Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 14, 2024, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

In keeping with the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery Wreaths Across America (WAA) tradition, 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, WAA volunteers conducted 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.

Approximately 9,000 wreaths were placed this year in sections O, P, Q, R, S and T of the cemetery. WAA coordinators for the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery said that until a time comes when there are 22,000 wreaths, enough for every grave, the coverage will rotate sections so that all are honored over time.

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.

The 2025 campaign begins now. WAA Day 2025 is set for Dec. 13. Click the link below to sponsor a wreath and help us get a head start on WAA Day 2025!

If you missed WAA on Dec. 14, you can still help honor veterans by helping us pick up all the wreaths on Jan. 18, 2025 at 9 a.m.

For more photos from WAA Day 2024, 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. 14, 2024, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

A view of sections P, Q, R and S of the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery on national Wreaths Across America day, Dec. 14, 2024, at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.