ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – The Honor Project wants to make sure service members are never forgotten. Every Memorial Day, hundreds of volunteers visit thousands of grave sites to place a token of appreciation and say the name of fallen heroes.
The Honor Project started for family members and loved ones of fallen soldiers. It’s a community no one wants to be a part of but they find comfort in one another as they fight to remember those lost.
On a bright, chilly Saturday morning, hundreds of volunteers gather together just outside the gates of Arlington Cemetery. Many are seen hugging and taking pictures as they stand in line to collect their drawstring bags full of T-shirts and 20 tokens. These palm-sized, black wooden pieces, with an image of a folded flag, will be placed on headstones in Section 60 of the cemetery.
The organization started when a woman named Emily Domenech was visiting Arlington Cemetery during COVID. She put out a tweet asking if anyone wants her to visit their loved ones. Access to Arlington Cemetery was limited during that time due to lockdowns. Her tweet went viral. Hundreds of people responded wanting her to visit the graves of their loved ones.
“She came to us after and said, ‘You know, I think we have a real opportunity here to do something bigger,’” Ryan Manion, who is the president of the Travis Manion Foundation, told the Washington Examiner. Manion has her own personal connection as her brother, 1st Lt. Travis Manion, is buried in Section 60 of Arlington Cemetery. He was killed in Iraq on April 29, 2007.
In 1972, Section 60 became an active burial section. Over 11,000 service members and veterans from the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, as well as many other conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries, are laid to rest in Section 60. Just over 1,000 of those died as a part of the global war on terror.
“At the end of the day, we want our loved ones to be remembered,” Manion said. “We want their service and their sacrifice to be honored, and we want people to say their names and tell their stories.”
The Travis Manion Foundation created The Honor Project and now involves thousands of volunteers visiting over 10,000 grave sites across 60 cemeteries to honor service members.
“To know that there are people going up and paying respects to my brother, not just on Memorial Day, but year round, I mean, there’s nothing more meaningful than that for me as a gold star sister,” Manion said.
These tokens were chosen specifically to be a small remembrance and not overbearing to the grave site itself. People can sign up to have a tombstone receive a token. Rain or shine, volunteers, called “Spartans,” come to pay respects and pause to reflect on their service and sacrifice.
“We actually upload all of the grave sites we visit onto our website,” Manion said. “Families can go on and they can see, ‘Oh, my loved one was visited that day.’ So it’s just about placing that token and being able to stand there and say their name and remember them on that day.”
The more than 400 volunteers at Arlington Cemetery, even those with small children, walked in hushed tones as they visited each grave they were assigned. Some saying quiet prayers, others seen kneeling as they placed the tokens on top of the white marble tombstones, saying the names on each aloud.
“Being here at Arlington, every time I’m here, it’s hallowed ground,” Manion said. “Every time I step into Arlington, walk to Section 60, there’s a sense of peace. You just look out at the vastness of all of these grave sites and know each one of these men and women served for us. I don’t think there’s anything more special than that.”
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The approximately 35,000 visitors at Arlington Cemetery over Memorial Day weekend will now find a token on the gravesites of their loved ones, as The Honor Project remembers those who gave their life for our country and our freedoms.