The Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) Veteran Employee Readiness Group (VET-ERG) celebrated Flag Day June 14 with a donation of worn United States Flags to Sturtevant Funeral Home.

The VET-ERG first began its U.S. Flag donation service in 2016 as part of the Retire Your Flag Program with Sturtevant Funeral Home. The flags collected are draped over fallen veterans at the time of cremation, a tribute to their service and a patriotic way to honor them.

“When we started doing this two years ago, we collected 30 flags altogether across the shipyard,” said VET-ERG Founding Member Rick Nelson. “We’ve reached out to our shipyard team, family, and friends to share this unique opportunity to honor our fallen veterans and the support since we began has been amazing. This year I’m proud to say we’ve collected 175 flags from our shipyard brethren and even from our friends of the shipyard from as far as New Hampshire.”

“We’re honored to be able to present Sturtevant Funeral Home these flags that were donated,” said Shipyard Commander Capt. Kai Torkelson in a small ceremony to turn over the flags to Robie Gardner from Sturtevant. “We’re blessed to have so many flags offered by our shipyard and have so many people responding to the call. There’s a lot of meaning behind when someone sends a flag off knowing that it’s going to serve an honorable purpose at its end. It’s a fitting role for Old Glory – wrapping the remains of a veteran.”

“This program is very special to us at Sturtevant and I appreciate everything Norfolk Naval Shipyard has done for us,” said Gardner. “It means a lot to me and I look forward to that continued relationship between us.”

The NNSY VET-ERG supports all members of the NNSY workforce that are military veterans of all five branches of service and other supporters of our nation’s veterans through a system of comprehensive activities and outreach programs.

For more information regarding the NNSY VET-ERG, contact richard.m.nelson1@navy.mil, tasha.beverly@navy.mil, or mariellen.l.champion@navy.mil.  The VET-ERG meets the second Thursday of each month at 8 a.m. in the Bldg. M-1 Conference Room. All shipyard employees, Sailors, and tenants are welcome to attend.

Learn more about the Retire your Flag program at https://www.sturtevantfuneralhome.com/retire-your-flag/retire-your-flag-program.

Get more information about the Navy from US Navy facebook or twitter.

For more news from Norfolk Naval Shipyard, visit www.navy.mil/.