HOUGHTON — Houghton High School Junior Reserve Officer’s Training Corps will be emplacing flags on veterans’ graves at the Forest Hill Cemetery, in Houghton, on Saturday, May 20, said JROTC Instructor Colonel Dylan Carlson (USA Ret).

“We’ll be working with some other volunteer groups to emplace about 1,500 American flags at the cemetery,” Carlson said. “That’s ahead of the Memorial Day Observance.”

Carlson said participation of the flag emplacement is voluntary and 20 cadets have registered for the project. The battalion will also have a cookout for the volunteers, he added.

“So, we’ll see about 20 of our kids, plus the Knights of Columbus and some other organizations will be there, so we’ll probably have 20 or 30 other folks as well,” said Carlson.

Carlson said the JROTC will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday and the emplacement should be completed around noon.

The cadets will not be in uniform Saturday, said Carlson. During last year’s flag emplacement they were in uniform because of a Raider Competition that had occurred immediately prior to the emplacement project.

The HHS JROTC organization is the Superior Battalion and comprises three school districts: Houghton High School’s Alpha Company, Hancock High School’s Bravo Company and Jeffers High School’s Charlie Company.

The high school JROTC progam is designed to t is designed to encourage high school students to become better citizens, JROTC website states. This accomplished by focusing on leadership and personal skill development. Cadets learn how to motivate themselves and others, focus on study habits, evaluate individual presentation that support other common core class like History, English and Government and various other life skill programs.