Command and General Staff College Foundation News Spring 2021 - 30

PHOTOS BY MARK H. WIGGINS

Foundation's 2021 Wreaths Across America campaign underway
by Mark H. Wiggins, Managing Editor

In February 2021, the CGSC Foundation kicked off
its second year of engagement with the national Wreaths
Across America to remember our nation's fallen heroes
during the holidays.
Throughout 2021 the Foundation will be encouraging
others to sponsor wreaths to place on graves in the Fort
Leavenworth National Cemetery in honor of the veterans
buried there. The wreaths will be placed on National
Wreaths Across America Day, Dec. 18, 2021.
" Part of the CGSC Foundation's mission is to conduct
outreach and to provide support to Soldiers and families, "
said Rod Cox, Foundation president/CEO. " I strongly
believe that Wreaths Across America is an important way to
honor our veterans who have gone before us. "
" It's 'just a wreath' some might say, but it's more
than that, " Cox added. " The Wreaths Across America
mission isn't just laying the wreath, it's a national effort
to 'Remember, Honor and Teach' all Americans about the
sacrifices of veterans for our country. "
Wreaths Across America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization founded to continue and expand the annual
wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery
begun by Maine businessman Morrill Worcester in 1992.
The organization's mission - Remember, Honor, Teach
- is carried out in part each year by coordinating wreathlaying ceremonies in December at Arlington, as well as at
thousands of veterans' cemeteries and other locations in all
50 states and beyond.
The CGSC Foundation's Wreaths Across America
(WAA) effort is focused on the Fort Leavenworth National
Cemetery. The Foundation is working with Diana Pitts, the
WAA Location Coordinator for the cemetery. Pitts's son,
Cpl. David Unger, who was killed in Iraq on Oct. 17, 2006,
is buried there. Pitts has assigned Section N of the cemetery,
which includes 900 graves, to the CGSC Foundation.
" Our goal is to honor each of the 900 veterans in Section
N of the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery with a
wreath this year, " said Cox, " but what we really want is to
put a wreath on every grave in the entire cemetery. That's
why we're starting the work now to communicate this effort
and get others committed to helping us in this effort. "
The Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery was established
in 1862 as one of 14 national cemeteries at that time. Today
the cemetery has more than 23,000 graves of veterans
representing every conflict since 1812. Notable veterans

30 - CGSC FOUNDATION NEWS | www.cgscfoundation.org

CGSC Foundation
President/CEO Rod
Cox lays a wreath
on a grave Dec.
19, 2020, the 2020
Wreaths Across
America Day, at the
Fort Leavenworth
National Cemetery.
The Foundation
recently kicked off its
2021 Wreaths Across
America campaign.

buried at Fort Leavenworth include Captain James Allen,
1st U.S. Dragoons, who died in August 1846. Allen's is
the oldest known military grave in the cemetery. Also,
the remains of Brigadier General Leavenworth, the fort's
namesake, were disinterred from Woodland Cemetery in
Delhi, N.Y., and reinterred in the national cemetery on
Memorial Day in 1902. Nine Medal of Honor recipients
are also buried there, including Capt. Thomas W. Custer,
brother of Lt. Col. George Custer. Thomas received the
Medal of Honor twice while serving in the U.S. Army,
Company B, 6th Michigan Cavalry; first for capturing the
flag at Namozine Church, Virginia, on May 3, 1865, and
second for actions at Sailor's Creek, Virginia, April 1865.
Custer died in 1876.
Cox is encouraging all friends, family, staff, faculty,
students and alumni of CGSC and the CGSC Foundation
to sponsor a wreath to honor the veterans buried at Fort
Leavenworth.
Visit the CGSC Foundation Wreaths Across America
website to sponsor a wreath today.

https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/164828

https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/164828 http://www.cgscfoundation.org

Command and General Staff College Foundation News Spring 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Command and General Staff College Foundation News Spring 2021