The Fayette County Veterans Service Commission purchases and provides flags to 13 cemeteries in Fayette County.

The cemeteries then place the flags on the graves of the veterans for Memorial Day. This year, the Fayette County Veterans Service Commission needed to provide about 6,000 flags to these cemeteries however, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Veterans Service Commission is unable to do that.

With most states shutting down manufacturing, the office was unable to get the needed flags for the veteran graves — leaving the Veterans Service Commission without flags for the local cemeteries as the flag supply is extremely low at this time.

Flags must be kept available in the office at all times for local funeral homes for when veterans pass away. With that being said, the office will not be able to pass out any flags to any person other than the funeral homes.

“It saddens our hearts to not be able to provide the flags to these veterans,” staff explained by email. “Once all flag mills open back up, we plan to still order the 6,000 flags that we originally needed and provide them to the cemeteries. Even though our office is not able to provide the flags for the veterans at this time, we still encourage the community to go out and visit the local cemeteries and pay respect to our heroes.”