You Don't Have to Have Served to Honor Those Who Did

Memorial Day Flag Pickup Story

By Lilly Wellons
Date June 15, 2026

The holiday is over. The speeches have been given, the wreaths laid, the television segments filed. By Tuesday morning, the LA National Cemetery is quiet again, all that's left are the rows of white headstones, small American flags still planted in the earth beside each one.

That's when the Bruins show up.

For the past 10 years, the UCLA Veterans Resource Center has organized a flag pickup the morning after Memorial Day. The volunteers; students, ROTC midshipmen, Veterans, community members, all collect the flags that were placed during the weekend's observances. It's a small, unglamorous task but it is for many of the people who do it, one of the more meaningful mornings of the year.

Angel Barajas, a fourth-year transfer student and sociology major, has been coming to this cemetery for most of his life. As a child, he remembers watching Governor Schwarzenegger give speeches here on Memorial Day. His grandmother still comes, his mother does too. The family has its own flag to find.

Angel served six years in the Army, enlisting in 2015 straight out of high school. His initial role was in mortuary affairs. Near the end of his contract, he reenlisted to deploy as a cook before getting out in 2021. His plans after that were straightforward: he'd seen the unrest of 2020 from overseas and came home intending to become a sheriff's deputy. He made it to the academy, but soon after he got injured.

He went to school during his rehab, starting with a single sociology class at Mt. San Antonio College, that class started an ambition for academia and his counselor told him not to stop there.

It was someone at Mt. San Antonio College who suggested he call the VRC at UCLA. He did. He doesn't remember who answered. But whoever it was mentioned volunteer events, including a flag pickup. Angel came out for Volunteer Day in 2023. That led to a transfer workshop, which led to another event, and then another. Somewhere along the way, the idea of UCLA shifted from an impossible dream to something that felt within reach. He applied, transferred, and is now set to graduate. This was his last flag pickup as a Bruin, he'll be back next year as an alum.

The flag his family picks up belongs to his uncle, Tim Javier, the Javier that became Angel's own middle name. Tim died in 1996, the year before Angel was born.

Tim was the middle child, with two brothers and a sister. By his family's telling, he was a rebellious but respectful young man, someone who enjoyed himself and loved to have a good time, but whose real mission was always his family. The house Angel's grandmother still lives in exists because of Tim. He joined the National Guard to provide for them, and like his nephew decades later, sought out something more. He went on active duty and was stationed in Korea, where his cousin was also posted. They had a few good months together there before Tim passed away due to an incident on base.

Angel never met his uncle. But Tim's story was kept alive at every family gathering, every visit to this cemetery, every Memorial Day morning, and it's the reason Angel keeps coming back.

Standing among the headstones on Tuesday morning, Angel reflected.

"Each one of those flags is somebody else's uncle," he said. "Somebody else's brother. Somebody else's friend."

For Angel, the flag pickup is personal. But what makes the morning remarkable is how many people show up for whom it isn't, but still come anyway

Midshipman Kieran Norris, who leads the UCLA Navy ROTC unit as its BNCO, was also out on the grounds Tuesday morning. For the ROTC group, the flag pickup has become a bit of tradition, replacing what would be their regular Tuesday training. Kieran notes she has participated in the event since her first year in the program.

"Coming out is really just to honor those who have selflessly served before us," she said, "and to make what we do every day feel more purposeful."

Not everyone there had a personal connection to the military. Madden Millin and Ovia Ratif, both first-year students, came through their UCLA Cluster 73: Brain, Mind, Body and Society seminar. Their instructor, Moises Machuca, who leads the VRC’s Tell Your Story program, encouraged the group to attend. For Ovia, the invitation carried extra weight. She had recently completed an oral history interview with a Veteran as part of the coursework, and the experience had changed the way she understood what service costs.

"I had a new appreciation," she said. "I thought this would be a beautiful event to come to."

Two high school students, Olivia Gary and Amelia Hortzen from Pacifica Christian, were also there. Neither had been to a flag pickup event before but Amelia, found she was drawn by the chance to participate in something she hadn't known existed until now.

It's a thread that runs through the morning: people who didn't have to be there, choosing to be.

Angel has been bringing people with him for a while now, not just the flag pickup, but the entire pipeline that brought him to UCLA. A high school friend, who he enlisted with, once asked how he'd ended up here. Angel told him about the flag pickup first. Then his friend came out for Volunteer Day and eventually transferred to UCLA himself. Angel’s sister, who's in community college, has come out too. And Angel still goes back to Mt. San Antonio College, helping other student Veterans navigate the same transfer process that once felt impossible to him.

Asked what the day after means to him, Angel took a moment.

"It's about showing that we care for them," he said. "We miss them, we have an understanding for them." For Angel, picking up a single flag is a small way to show each and every Veteran that they're loved, that they're missed, that they won't be forgotten.