CHEYENNE — As many as 100 showed up at the Cheyenne National Cemetery off Happy Jack Road ahead of an advertised 11 a.m. Memorial Day observance to remember America’s fallen heroes and loved ones.
Instead, they were stood up.
No one was there to play the taps, which is played during patriotic memorial ceremonies and military funerals.
No honor guard showed up, no 21-gun salute, and no prayers — at least not until four hours after a scheduled observance posted by the U.S. Veterans Administration at 11 a.m.
Just a big bureaucratic mix-up?
Try explaining the tussle over timing to the veterans and family who showed up at 11 a.m. — as announced on the VA’s website —expecting some sort of Memorial Day observance but finding the national cemetery deserted, except for others who showed up for the same.
The families, some of them driving in from out of state, are fighting mad.
Memorial Day is when U.S. military personnel who have died serving their country get some dedicated respect, prayers and other honors.
“I’m kind of amazed that there isn’t a (memorial) service happening,” said Keith Jobes, a veteran who has friends and acquaintances buried in the national cemetery. “I ended up watching the laying of the wreath on TV at Arlington (National Cemetery) earlier today.”
'We The People'
“We the people showed up today, but the government didn’t,” said Cheyenne’s Diane Fritsch, doubling down on the cemetery’s snafu on timing for an observance event.
“I’m from a little town in Dalton, Nebraska, with 300 people, and our VFW post is having an observance,” said Mark Laurent, who showed up expecting an 11 a.m. to noon ceremony on Monday at the 5-acre cemetery the VA dedicated in October 2020.
No cancellation notices, or anything, were given to those who wanted to express some patriotism and remember those who’ve paid the ultimate price for America’s freedom.
“These people deserve an observation. It’s something that should be done,” said Laurent, who was joined at the cemetery by others in his family. “I’m not happy about this.”
It was quite the organizing effort for the Laurent family to get to Cheyenne.
Kent Laurent came from Bridgeport, Nebraska, and Mark Laurent from Dalton, Nebraska.
The brothers carpooled 120 miles over Interstate 80 to the cemetery while sister Debra Laurent and her daughter, Stephanie Horner, drove 60 miles north on Interstate 25 from Loveland, Colorado.
Despite no “official observance,” they still paid their respects to their father Charles and wartime, stay-at-home mother, Leona, whose cremated remains were moved to the cemetery’s columbarium in November. This was the family’s first Cheyenne National Cemetery visit.
Charles Laurent served in the Navy during World War II — locked on a destroyer in Tokyo Bay after Japan surrendered — and in a destroyer off the coast of Korea during that early 1950s war to fight the aggression of communism in Asia.
He ended his military service by helping out with recruiting during the Vietnam war.
On Monday by 11:30 a.m., the Laurents climbed back into their minivan and headed over to the Down Home Diner along West Lincolnway to grab a bite to eat and break out a cellophane packaged German chocolate cake to honor their mom’s favorite sweet.
“She was actually fond of a pineapple upside down cake, but I couldn’t’ find one,” said Mark Laurent, who picked up the sandwiched-sized cake at a Walmart in Nebraska before heading to Cheyenne earlier Monday.
Slipped Through Cracks
It’s difficult to say exactly how things slipped through the cracks for the Memorial Day observance at the Cheyenne National Cemetery.
William Washington, the cemetery’s manager for the VA, told Cowboy State Daily that the snafu could have been caused by a failure to update the VA website in time for the event.
“It definitely did not happen,” Washington said. “This basically was all so last minute, with me just trying to get some support.”
The Cheyenne cemetery is actually a satellite like others in Montana and Utah that report to Fort Logan National Cemetery, which from a bureaucratic standpoint oversees smaller ones connected to the former U.S. Army installation hub headquartered in Denver.
Things got dicey around the middle of last week with plans for an observance in Cheyenne, however, as things got closer to the Memorial Day weekend.
That’s when Washington ran into Justin Tripp, commander of VFW Post 11453 in Cheyenne, at the funeral of a mutual veteran friend. The issue of the Memorial Day observance was discussed, and Tripp said that he offered to send some veterans from his post over to the Cheyenne National Cemetery at 3 p.m. Monday to say a prayer and offer up a moment of silence.
“This is the best we could do for now until we get more support,” Washington said.
But the website of the national organization continued to report the observance time as 11 a.m.
Tripp told Cowboy State Daily that he was frustrated that the troubles with organization materialized so late in the week before Memorial Day.
“This was all pretty last second,” Tripp admitted.
“We didn’t get approval to do something until Friday,” said Tripp, who is in Michigan this weekend visiting his ailing father. “This frustrates me. I’m a veteran. This isn’t about picnics, but about people who died and never came home.”
Richard Tygret, 58, showed up at the Cheyenne National Cemetery on Monday to randomly place an American flag on the burial site of a military officer who he doesn’t know. The deceased person, Robert M. Samuel Jr., served in the Navy, and was buried in the cemetery last July. He was driving back from a camping weekend at the Vedauwoo recreation area when he felt moved to stop at the cemetery to recognize someone he didn’t know. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
Lynda Drum visited the grave of her veteran father Harvey Frisbee, who served in the Marines in Korea and Vietnam, at the Cheyenne National Cemetery. “I talk with him about his new great, grandchildren, and seek his advice on things, said Drum, who misses her trips out to Curt Gowdy State Park with him and where he’d give her fatherly support as they sat fishing at Granite, Crystal and North Crow reservoirs. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
Jane Sharkey stopped by her husband’s marble nameplate on the columbarium to cry over her husband, “Crissy,” at the Cheyenne National Cemetery on Memorial Day. He was a Marine who served in Vietnam, flew over 550 helicopter missions. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Cheyenne National Cemetery, which is run by the U.S. Veterans Administration, is a 5-acre site located off Happy Jack Road, and dedicated in October 2020. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
From left, Debra Laurent, Kent Laurent, Stephanie Horner and Mark Laurent, drove from their homes in Nebraska and Colorado to visit the burial site of their father in the Cheyenne National Cemetery. The were looking forward to a military observation on Memorial Day but the U.S. Veterans Administration messed up the time of the event, upsetting many people who visited the cemetery on Monday. (Pat Maio, Cowboy State Daily) 
The announced time for the Memorial Day ceremony at Cheyenne National Cemetery was 11 a.m. Monday, but because of a scheduling screw-up about 100 people — some from other states — showed up, there was no ceremony. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Tears Rolled Off Cheeks
Meanwhile, the throng of 100 who did show up at 11 a.m. came with flags and flowers to push into the ground next to their loved ones, with tears rolling off their cheeks.
Jane Sharkey stopped by her husband’s marble nameplate on the columbarium to cry over her husband, “Crissy.”
He was a Marine who served in Vietnam, flew 550 helicopter missions and died in the end from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer Sharkey said was caused by toxic Agent Orange chemicals sprayed on lush Vietnam jungles to burn out the green canopies and expose enemy troops. The dangerous contaminant got Crissy Sharkey in the end.
Still, like others who died from complications caused by Agent Orange, Sharkey did not get his name etched into the wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. In fact, his wife said that Crissy didn’t much care for the wall because it hid some of the names as it disappeared into the ground.
“He had lots of flashbacks and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) for years,” said his wife, who donated his wartime photos and memorabilia to the Military Memorial Museum in Cheyenne after his passing in November.
Also saddened Monday was Cheyenne area resident Lynda Drum, who visited the grave of her father, Harvey Frisbee, who served in the Marines in Korea and Vietnam.
“I talk with him about his new great-grandchildren and seek his advice on things,” said Drum, who misses her trips with him to Curt Gowdy State Park where he’d give her fatherly support as they sat fishing at Granite, Crystal and North Crow reservoirs.
“Always go with your gut,” she recalled of her father’s advice.
Bad Taste
Visitors at the cemetery Monday paid their respects to loved ones — even though the timing dustup left a bad taste in the mouths of many.
“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it,” said Hopkins in quoting a famous phrase written by writer and humorist Mark Twain.
“We owe them everything,” said Hopkins, who paid her respect to her father, Bob Clifton, who worked in a boiler room of the Navy’s USS Valley Forge aircraft carrier in the Korean War and later as a “frogman” in an underwater demolition team.
She and her husband drove 300 miles from their Riverton, Wyoming, home for Monday’s observance at the ceremony, only to be disappointed by no one showing up for the 11 a.m. event.
“It took four hours to get here. I would have done this today even if I had known this wasn’t going to happen,” said Hopkins of the no-show for the observance.
Pat Maio can be reached at pat@cowboystatedaily.com.
