Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette Members of the Alfred Erickson American Legion Post 186 of Hancock solemnly observe Memorial Day Monday by honoring the graves of veterans.

HOUGHTON — Somber observances of Memorial Day were conducted in cemeteries throughout the nation on Monday and Houghton’s Forest Hill Cemetery was no exception.

The Alfred Erickson American Legion Post 186 of Hancock conducted a service at the cemetery, as well as at the Houghton County Marina in Ripley, the Veteran’s Park in Houghton, Stanton Township’s Liminga and Oskar cemeteries and the Waasa and Hancock cemeteries, in addition to four other sites.

Services, conducted at the graves in the American Legion section of the cemetery, consisted of a short speech, a prayer said by the post chaplain and a three-gun salute. The American Legion section is just one of 27 veterans’ sections within the Forest Hill Cemetery, said retired U.S. Army Col. Dylan Carlson. Counting all service members interred in the cemetery, he said, there are 1,465 veterans’ graves, each of which has an American flag displayed upon it.

The flags honor veterans, but they also serve to distinguish their graves from the graves of others.

Carlson said the two federal holidays that are most important to American service members are Memorial Day and Nov. 11.

Nov. 11, which is Veterans Day in the United States, is a celebration.

“Veterans Day is the day Americans celebrate all those who have served their country in the military,” he said. “Armed Services Day (the third Saturday in May), which is generally all but forgotten by most Americans, is a day to honor and celebrate the nation’s servicemen and women who still wear the uniform.”

In the United States, May 30, Memorial Day, is a day of somber observance and remembrance.

“Memorial Day is a much more solemn occasion when we remember those who have sacrificed,” he explained. “So, that would be the fallen, those who have passed on, those who fell in battle, those who are still missing in action — 40,000 Americans who are still on the Missing in Action rolls — and so, really, that’s what today is all about.”

In the Forest Hill Cemetery, however, Memorial Day observances are not just for those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces, said Carlson. There are also the graves of three former British servicemen who are honored. All three were veterans of World War I. The British flag is displayed on those graves.