SENATE MEMORIAL 38

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2012

INTRODUCED BY

Mary Jane M. Garcia

A MEMORIAL

REQUESTING ALL CEMETERIES TO FLY THE VETERANS REMEMBERED FLAG.

     WHEREAS, the American legion mandates that all veterans be treated with honor and respect in death as well as in life; and

     WHEREAS, national and state veterans cemeteries honor only twelve percent of veterans in their final resting place; and

     WHEREAS, that leaves more than eighty percent of veterans interred in private locations throughout the country without recognition; and

     WHEREAS, the veterans remembered flag flying below the American flag at the entrance to these private cemeteries would give long-deserved recognition of the presence of veterans interred in such cemeteries; and

     WHEREAS, displaying of a veterans remembered flag at such cemeteries will allow public awareness and enable the public to pay their respects on appropriate holidays to these veterans; and

     WHEREAS, there are flags for all branches of the armed services, there is a flag for prisoners of war and those missing in action, but there is no flag to honor the millions of former military personnel who have served the nation; and

     WHEREAS, a flag is a symbol of recognition for a group or an ideal, and veterans compose a group, certainly represent an ideal and surely deserve their own symbol; and

     WHEREAS, it is estimated that twenty million four hundred thousand veterans, affiliated and unaffiliated with veterans' organizations, have served in the nation's military and comprise a significant portion of the country's population; and

     WHEREAS, a veterans remembered flag would memorialize and honor all past, present and future veterans and provide an enduring symbol to support tomorrow's veterans today; and 

     WHEREAS, the American legion, department of California, assembled in the eighty-seventh annual convention in 2005 duly adopted a resolution calling for approval on the national level of a "veterans remembered flag"; and

     WHEREAS, the assembly and the senate of the state of California jointly adopted a veterans remembered flag at the assembly on May 4, 2006 and at the senate on June 1, 2006; and

     WHEREAS, other states and the United States Navy memorial in Washington, D.C., have approved of a veterans remembered flag;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that it request that all cemeteries fly the veterans remembered flag of the American legion; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of veterans' services.

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