Hundreds of U.S. flags cover the area in front of Dudley Christian Church’s Veterans Rock for last year’s Armed Forces Day observance at the church, 212 O’Berry Rd., Dudley. The public is invited to the church fellowship hall on Saturday, May 10, for an 8 a.m. breakfast and then to help place the flags for this year’s observance that will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18, at the church. The public is invited to that event as well. (Photo courtesy Dudley Christian Church)
Volunteers set out flags last year for Dudley Christian Church’s annual Armed Forces Day observance. The public is invited to the church fellowship hall Saturday, May 10, for an 8 a.m. breakfast and then to help set out flags for this year’s observance that will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18, at the church. The public is invited to that event as well. (Photo courtesy Dudley Christian Church)
Volunteers pose in front of Dudley Christian Church’s Veterans Rock last year after setting out flags for the church’s annual Armed Forces Day observance. The public is invited to the church fellowship hall Saturday, May 10, for an 8 a.m. breakfast and then to help set out flags for this year’s observance that will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, May 18, at the church. The public is invited to that event as well. (Photo courtesy Dudley Christian Church)
DUDLEY — The public is invited to Dudley Christian Church’s third annual Armed Forces Day Service Sunday, May 18, at 11 a.m.
It will be followed by a country brunch at the church known as the home of the Veterans Rock — a granite boulder painted with images that represent patriotism and all branches of the U.S military.
The stage for the observance will be set Saturday, May 10, when volunteers will place some 500 U.S. flags next to the church that is located at 212 O’Berry Rd.
“On May 10 we will all meet at 8 a.m. at the fellowship hall and the Brogden Grange will feed us,” Pastor Blane Smith said. “We will get together with the Grange folks and eat. Then about 8:30 or so everybody goes over to the Veterans Rock.
“We put grids out, and we will put out whatever (flags) we have. There are probably 500 flags. Last year, we had so many people we had the flags put out in about an hour. It was quick work.”
Armed Forces Day, established by President Harry S. Truman in 1950, is celebrated on the third Saturday in May.
The holiday honors the men and women who have served or are serving in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Space Force and Coast Guard, including the National Guard and Reserve components.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy declared Armed Forces Day a national holiday.
The observance is a way to honor all veterans and to fellowship, Smith said.
“That is the whole point,” he added. “It is pretty amazing. We just think it is the right thing to do. There is a whole generation that doesn’t know anything about these folks’ service. Of course anybody is invited. The more, the merrier. We have a big time. It is all patriotic stuff.
“A lot of the times we will have the group Encore there. They will sing the salute to the troops. What I do is basically give a summary and history of the Veterans Rock because we always have people there who have never been before.”
The ceremony will last about an hour, he added.
“We will have communion and prayer, but there is no sermon,” Smith continued. “It is me basically talking about the history of the Veterans Rock. Then the big thing we do — we have the big country brunch. We have cheese biscuits and cheese grits and sausage. You name it and it will be there.”
“We always invite the VFW and Tour of Honor. I have been advertising with them for several weeks. We will have some Tour of Honor fellows show up.”
Smith jokes that one reason the turnout is so good is because it is the South and therefore involves food.
“They are not coming to hear me,” he laughs.
In 2022, the Veterans Rock was the most-visited site on the Tour of Honor, a motorcycle rally that takes riders to veterans’ memorials throughout the U.S.
Veterans Rock has attracted visitors from across the world. Most recently the guestbook was signed by visitors from Auckland, New Zealand.
“Now how you get from New Zealand to Dudley is beyond me,” Smith said. “It is always (visitors) from Pennsylvania or something like that. We have had Alaska, Hawaii, all kinds of places. I guess it pops up on the internet or whatever.”
Church member Jane Beaman got the idea for Veterans Rock in 2019 when a co-worker made her aware of Freedom Rock — a boulder painted as a tribute to veterans — in Iowa.
The idea appealed to her partly because her husband, father and brother were all veterans, but also because of the church’s proximity to Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base.
Smith painted the rock.
“Jane and I kid all of the time that the Rock is its own thing,” Smith said. “I have don’t anything to do with it anymore. It just does what it wants to do. But when people started going over there, and pouring out the ashes of loved ones they had lost in the military, that is when we got the Gold Star and the Blue Star memorial. We knew it had gone past anything we had thought.”
It was Beaman who also suggested the flags after seeing a field of flags and got it on her mind that the church should do one as well, Smith said.
“The first year we did it about the time we got the flags in the ground (WRAL’s) The Tarheel Traveler came and did something (on it),” Smith said.
“We raised the money and bought 700 flags,” Blane said. “Of course, over the last couple of years between wear and tear and everything else, we are probably down to 500 flags now.”
For those interested in visiting, Dudley Christian Church is located at 212 O’Berry Rd., Dudley.
For more information, visit the Veterans Rock Facebook page.
