Details always matter – in law, policy, the military, business, taxes, mastering new skills, remembering old dates, matching times to actions, keeping metrics, executing on a mission. The word for coordinating complex operations is logistics. Last week, a “Wreaths Across America” convoy – carrying 400,000 wreaths to Arlington National Cemetery – modeled logistical excellence.
Think with me about this – a private sector initiative, begun in 1992 by a family who cared deeply about America’s fallen, serving, and future veterans – today annually honors nearly three million fallen veterans across the United States each Christmas, each grave receiving a Maine wreath.
“Wreaths Across America” – which also honors Gold Star Families – brings together two million volunteers who, on “Wreaths Across America Day,” place handmade wreaths at more than 5,200 locations across the United States, each time saying the name of the fallen, so never forgotten.
The magnitude of this operation, having spoken at length with founders Morrill and Karen Worcester in Maine and on the convoy, joining them for wreath-laying in Washington, D.C., is almost surreal. Both humble, they can hardly believe how things have unfolded over 33 years, and are grateful.
While the enterprise is enormous work, preparation, and coordination – assisted by tireless souls like Tiffany Strout, who grew up making wreaths and now helps the convoy roll down the Eastern seaboard, it is also powered by love, devotion to those who gave everything, and to the future – remembering, honoring, and teaching the next generation to understand and honor freedom.
To that, add hundreds of patriotic, untiring, perfectly coordinated truckers, many seasoned veterans among their ranks, who this year rolled out with 69 tractor-trailer trucks and travelled in formation for 600 miles, to get to the Memorials and Washington.
At the side of this enormous convoy, with hundreds of volunteers, were dozens of Maine State and local police officers, protective and determined, coordinated and unblinking in their mission, cruisers with decorated State Police Troopers to counties from Cumberland to Penobscot and beyond. They were synchronized, formed up at each Memorial with precision, and honored us all.
All along this convoy’s route, lights flashing, roads blocked for the procession – celebrating lives lost for the highest possible purpose, liberty – flag-waving crowds lined the roads. From Ellsworth through Portland, down the coast to the first Memorial visited, the 9-11 Memorial, families came.
On the day before 40,000 Americans met them to lay 400,000 wreaths at Arlington – remembering by name every single patriot there – the State and local police assembled and, at full attention, honored those we will never forget at the nation’s 9-11, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII Memorials.
The next day, at 0500, we assembled at a meeting point, were briefed by Maine State Police, local police, and “Wreaths Across America” leadership, then proceeded to Arlington, where 40,000 Americans – can you imagine it? – poured through those gates at 0800 to lay wreaths, one by one.
The giant trucks took up positions around the cemetery, huge boxes filled with wreaths were carefully unloaded, and hundreds of young people – JR ROTC, scouts, patriotic volunteers – gave each American, often arriving as families, one wreath to place.
As this extraordinary day proceeded, you could watch section after section, one fallen patriot after another, specifically honored. Imagine that? Each and every patriot lying at Arlington was individually honored – and the same was unfolding at more than 5000 cemeteries around America.
At 10:30 sharp, Maine’s law enforcement community and attending veterans assembled beside the Eternal Flame, which honors the life, words, and loss of President John F. Kennedy, himself a combat Navy vet from WWII, whose heroic actions are recorded in the movie PT-109.
After this wreath laying, at 11:30 – and after visiting the Arlington Military Women’s Memorial – all assembled at the main mast of the U.S.S. Maine battleship, which today honors the more than 250 who died on February 15, 1898, when that ship was sunk, starting the Spanish-American War.
At 12:00 exactly, “Wreaths Across America” representatives were invited, with precision and ceremony by the impeccable 3rd US Infantry Regiment, or “Old Guard” – forever guarding the fallen in our Tomb of the Unknowns – to[present a wreath in their honor. Silence defined the moment.
In time, every single veteran at Arlington – all 400,000 – was personally honored, one by one, bow-bedecked wreath by wreath, until the day closed, honor and reverence – green and red before each stone – defined Arlington National Cemetery.
As Christmas comes, this one day – and all who make it happen – are a nod to America, those who fell for us, those who mourn them, those who serve still, and those who, God willing, always will. Here is the heartbeat of a grateful nation, remembering. Here, too, is what real logistical excellence – made possible by the private sector and volunteers – looks like. Details matter. God bless America.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!
