Mark Lantrip joined The American Legion challenge to support his mental health and honor veterans whose families cannot locate the needed paperwork for a burial flag.
Mark Lantrip joined The American Legion’s USA 250 Challenge after reading about it in The American Legion Magazine. The challenge celebrates the nation’s 250th birthday on July 4 by encouraging Legion Family and community members to log 250 miles or hours in one or more of the categories of fitness, mental health and community service, which Lantrip fulfills daily.
Lantrip logs about 100 miles weekly cycling outdoors for his mental health. “Cycling has been very beneficial to me,” said Lantrip, a member of American Legion Post 169 in Wichita Falls, Texas. “It’s good for your body, but it’s mainly to clear my head and reset my body to deal with the day coming up. I do it for my mental health.”
For community service, Lantrip provides burial flags at no charge for families of veterans who can’t find their loved one’s DD-214 upon their passing to secure a burial flag. He was inspired by this act of service when a friend lost her father unexpectedly and reached out to Lantrip for a burial flag as her father’s DD-214 was lost in a house fire.
“So I provided a burial flag. I asked her if I could do it to honor her father,” Lantrip said. “We don’t know them all, but we owe them all. That is my mission statement.”
That was two years ago and since then, Lantrip has provided 20 burial flags for families of veterans.
“It’s turned from a need to a project to a mission now,” said Lantrip, who started a Facebook page to share his mission, help other veteran families and raise donations to continue his efforts.
“You don't know the need is out there until you start asking and find out,” Lantrip said.
Lantrip shared that a veteran told him he believed in what he was doing with the burial flags and that he needed to get his DD-214 paperwork prepared for his family members. “Unfortunately, he committed suicide a week later,” Lantrip said. “The family didn’t want to go in the house and through his paperwork, so I gave a burial flag to a friend to take to the family. My friend said when she walked in with the flag the father almost went to his knees thankful that he didn’t have to look for the paperwork or go through the procedure to get a burial flag.”
He also provided a burial flag for an Iraq combat veteran whose family couldn’t locate the needed paperwork for one.
“It’s sort of bittersweet because you’re helping a family that’s in need by giving them something to honor and remember their hero by. It’s closure for their hero,” Lantrip said.
If Lantrip ships a flag, which is folded and enclosed in a nice plastic bag, he will include a sympathy card with a “Thank you for your service” veteran coin for family members. If the family is local, he presents the folded flag for it to be draped on the casket or however the family wishes for it to be displayed.
“I try to provide the most dignified way to present the burial flag to the family,” he said.
There is still time to register for The American Legion’s USA 250 Challenge. Learn more here and register for $30 which benefits The American Legion’s Veterans & Children Foundation. And be a part of the challenge to raise $150,000 for VCF.
- USA250 Challenge