The annual flag placement ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery will not take place this year due to the ongoing federal government shutdown, but individuals can still place their own flags.

The "Flag for Every Hero" event, in which volunteers spend several hours walking through the cemetery's hundreds of acres to place small flags at the nearly 300,000 burial plots, was scheduled to take place Saturday morning.

"We regret to announce that, due to the ongoing government shutdown, our official flag placement ceremony at Riverside National Cemetery will not take place this year," a post by Honoring Our Fallen read.

The post cited a lack of staffing and various logistical challenges, including limited access to facilities, trash management and traffic control as contributing to the cance

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