Harry Snider remembers the Vietnam War with first-hand memories. Those memories and the people he served with are the reasons he remembers Veterans Day with pride.

A Huxford native and resident, Snider made it a point to have American flags flying on the graves of veterans in his community.

“This is my second year doing this,” Snider said of placing flags on the graves. “It’s just something I wanted to do to show honor to those veterans.”

Snider said he hopes to some day see a monument of honor for veterans in the Huxford community.

“We have 23 veterans buried in the Huxford Baptist Church Cemetery,” Snider said. “There may be others that aren’t marked out there. I would like to see Huxford have a monument for our veterans like I see in other communities.”

Snider has family members buried in the cemetery that are veterans, which increases his desire to see the flags flying and the placing of a monument.

“My father and a brother are buried there and they are veterans,” Snider said. “That’s my family and that’s my church, so I just wanted to get those flags up”

Snider’s father, Leonard A. Snider, served in World War II, while his brother, Tommy Snider, served as a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard.

Finding the flags to place at the markers of Huxford veterans was no easy task this year, Snider said.

“I had a hard time finding the flags this year,” Snider said. “I had gone to a doctor’s visit in Monroeville and checked at some stores there for flags. Nobody had any. Some of them even told me that it was out of season for the flags. I told them it was never out of season for the flag — that is a year ‘round thing.”

Snider stopped at retail stores on his trip back home, but was not able to located more than one flag anywhere.

“I was just about ready to give up,” Snider said. “I had looked everywhere I knew to look and nobody had any flags. Then, I decided to go into the Dollar (General) store and asked for flags. The gentleman there told me they were in the back since they were already putting out Christmas things. I told him why I wanted them and he went to get flags for me.”

Snider said he was pleased when the clerk told him there was no charge for the flags.

“It was a wonderful thing,” Snider said. “They donated those flags that we put at the cemetery.”

Snider didn’t place all of the flags alone. He had help from his three sons – two of which are veterans themselves.

“My sons helped me put out the flags,” Snider said. “They wanted to help me and I was glad to have them there.”

Jerid Snider served six years in the National Guard and Dillon Snider served 11 years with the National Guard. Heath Snider assisted his veteran father and brothers in placing the flags.

“I’ve talked to a few people in Huxford about getting a memorial put up for our community veterans,” Snider said. “I know there are a lot of veterans in our area and I’d like to see the ones who have died and the ones still living have a memorial to honor their service.”

Snider said anyone with information on how to establish a memorial monument or who would like to donate to make the memorial a reality may contact him, Charles Dorriety or Marion Trawick with that information.

There are 23 veterans buried in the Huxford Baptist Church Cemetery including two from World War II; two from the Vietnam war; one from the Confederate war; one female veteran; with the remaining 17 having served in World War II.