Every folded flag tells a story.

The significance of the stories became clearer to Lt. Col. Glenn T. Schneider the day a "slightly eccentric but very crusty Vietnam War veteran" colonel called him in to tell him four Marine security guards had been murdered by leftist guerrillas in El Salvador.

"He told me quite curtly that it was time for me to see my first dead Marines," the retired Marine said during a ceremony honoring fallen veterans Monday at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau.

The colonel took him to the morgue, where he found four young men, their bodies riddled with bullet holes.

Schneider and his colleagues prepared the men's bodies for their trips home, dressing them in their dress blues, draping flags over their caskets and putting them on the plane to Andrews Air Force Base, where their families and then-President Ronald Reagan awaited them.

More than 450 flags are displayed on Memorial Day at the Avenue of Flags in Cape Girardeau County Park North. (Fred Lynch)

"That was probably the first time I truly understood what the flag over the casket represented," Schneider said.

Displaying another flag that had once draped a casket, Schneider -- who served in Panama during the 1980s -- urged his audience to consider the story behind each neatly folded flag.

"These are real people with really extraordinary stories, extraordinary things that they have done to give us our freedom," he said. "I hope that everyone will remember what actions lie behind the ceremonies, the speeches and the symbols."

Schneider described another veteran who gave his life for others' freedom: Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, a Guatemalan orphan who came to the United States as a young man, joined the Marines, and was among the first casualties of the war in Iraq.

Gutierrez was awarded American citizenship posthumously, Schneider said.

"In the end, all of us who enjoy the privileges of citizenship and freedom in this country owe a debt we can never repay to the man who came home in a flag-draped casket but left as an orphan boy from Guatemala," he said.

Schneider asked the audience to remember those who gave their lives so Americans could have "the freedom to be here today, or perhaps more importantly, the freedom to not be here ... if you so wish."

Sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Joint Veterans Council, the ceremony at the Osage Centre was the second of the morning. American Legion Altenthal-Joerns Post 158 and the American Legion Auxiliary organized a Memorial Day service in Jackson.

During that event, the Rev. Sam Rothemeyer, pastor of Emanuel United Church, spoke of the courage and sacrifices of all veterans.

"We must look up, look up and give thanks for all those who gave their lives and continue to give their lives for us," he said. "This morning, I carry on, and I hope you will ... the legacies and the heritage of those that have given their lives. You and I are about the unfinished business of freedom and justice, sacrifice and life."

Matt Smith brought his 22-month-old daughter, Sophia, to the ceremony in Jackson.

He said many people fail to grasp what Memorial Day means.

"This generation, I don't think they understand it," the Jackson man said. "Every time they announce the different branches up there, less and less guys stand up, and that's sad."

Norman and Debby Baker of Jackson are making sure their grandchildren, Abigail, 5, and Mitchel, 3, understand.

"We brought them here just to broaden their education more about our country," Debby Baker said after the Cape Girardeau ceremony. "We're taking them up to see all the flags up at Memorial Park."

Abigail's favorite part of the ceremony was the gun salute to fallen veterans.

"It was kind of loud," she said.

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