By Greg Ellison

(June 3, 2021) While the bulk of Memorial Day remembrances occurred on Monday, a week earlier separate efforts by Berlin’s two American Legion Posts, Boggs Disharoon #123 and Duncan Showell #231, maintained longstanding traditions of placing American Flags at military veterans’ gravesites.

American Legion Post #123 Commander Vincent Holloway Jr. said more than 1,500 flags were put out early last week on the headstones of former military members throughout Worcester County.

“Just about every graveyard there is around here,” he said.

American Legion Post #231 historian Gregory Purnell said members placed flags on gravesites of several hundred African-American veterans at a handful of area cemeteries.

Purnell said the two posts — one Black and one White — split tasks at Evergreen Cemetery and St Paul’s United Methodist Cemetery.

“It’s done on a racial divide and the cemetery is still divided by a hedge,” he said. “The veterans on the St. Paul Cemetery side are done by Post #231.”

Purnell said Post #231 members also placed flags on veterans’ graves at Whaleyville United Methodist Cemetery, Curtis United Methodist Church Cemetery on Campbelltown Rd., New Bethel United Methodist Church on Germantown Rd and the Fooks Family Cemetery on Route 611.

“The post has done that since the 1950s,” he said.

Holloway said Legion Post #123’s Memorial Day tradition of honoring departed veterans with flags at gravesites goes back at least a half-century.

“I’ve been a member for 46 years and we’ve been doing it ever since I’ve been here,” he said. “It’s been on the books for a long time.”

American Legion Post #123 Boggs Disharoon was established in 1936 by area physician Dr. Clifford Schott and named after two Worcester County veterans who perished during WWI.

Purnell said American Legion Post #231 was established in 1947 and named after WWII veterans PFC Leon Duncan, who died in Italy, and PFC Daniel Showell, who was killed in North Africa, both in 1944.

Holloway said Post #123 has maintained a running log of Worcester County veterans’ final resting spots since the flag tradition began decades ago.

“Anytime we see an article about a veteran that died, we’ll write down what graveyard they’re being buried at,” he said.

Holloway said Post #123 members accomplished its goal in short order by dividing the task.

“We did it all in two days,” he said. “We split up and go in groups.”

Lending assistance were Post #123 Sons of the American Legion, American Legions Riders and the Ladies Auxiliary of the American Legion.

“We’ve been lucky the last two or three years,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of people coming to help us.”

Holloway said in recent years American Legion Post #166 in Ocean City has helped finance the flags for the project.

“They furnish all the flags that we set on graves and our Legion places them all,” he said. “So, actually it’s a joint thing between two Legions.”

Speaking on Monday, Purnell said Post #231 members visited the various cemetery locations on Memorial Day to perform “Taps,” to honor the memory of departed military members.

“I used to be a bugler,” he said.

Purnell said while attending high school at Stephen Decatur in the mid-1960s, he played trumpet in the band.

“My grandfather, George Smack, was a charter member of American Legion Post #231,” he said. “When he got older, he asked me would I promise to continue to blow taps as long as I could at veterans’ graves.”

Purnell played taps on Memorial Day with Post #231 from the mid-1960s until the late-1980s to honor the wishes of his grandfather, who was a WWII veteran.

Prior to 1971, when Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act to mark Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, Purnell said Berlin’s twin posts joined forces every May 30 to perform Taps at the War Memorial on Main Street near the Taylor House Museum.

“John Cannon was the music teacher at Stephen Decatur,” he said. “He blew for post #123 and I blew for post #231.”

Starting in 1971, the duo performed echoing taps on the Sunday morning prior to Memorial Day.

“John Cannon and I blew those taps together,” he said. “That was the one time that the two posts came together to celebrate the veterans.”

Purnell said based on the relatively small area Berlin encompasses it begs the question why separate but equal fraternal groups continue to exist.

“Even in 2021, we still have two American Legion posts,” he said. “We were taught that veterans were veterans.”