For years, Memorial Day on the North Shore has included a quiet but powerful tradition — American flags planted at the graves of veterans in local cemeteries by members of the Quentin Roosevelt American Legion Post 4 and the former Oyster Bay Boy Scout Troop 299. But as the legion post prepares to close and its membership continues to shrink, one local teenager has stepped in to ensure that the tradition endures.
Zachary Hertlein, 18, a rising senior at Oyster Bay High School and a member of Troop 43 in Sea Cliff, is working toward the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest in scouting, with a project that honors Cold Spring Harbor’s fallen service members in a distinctly modern way. Hertlein is creating a detailed, GPS-coded map of every veteran’s grave in St. John’s Church Cemetery to ensure that no one is forgotten during Memorial Day flag placements.
The idea grew out of a lifetime of service.
“Back when my brother was in scouts, he would do that for the American Legion with my dad, and my dad being next to my mom, he brought 2-year-old me with them to come and help,” Hertlein recalled. “Over time, it just ended up being a service I’ve done to help out the legion, and just something I care about because I’ve been doing it for so long.”
Hertlein, who also participates in sailing, fencing, jazz band and several clubs at the high school, was inspired not just by his brother, an Eagle Scout himself, but by longtime legion commander and U.S. Navy veteran Reginald Butt. Over the years, Butt mentored Hertlein and other scouts while leading the Memorial Day flag effort at four local cemeteries.
“I do see him as a mentor,” Zachary said. “Throughout the years, I’ve just really enjoyed listening to his stories. It’s very interesting learning what he’s been through and what he’s done.”
Hertlein originally proposed mapping all four cemeteries used for local Memorial Day observances, Young’s Cemetery in Oyster Bay, Pine Hollow Cemetery in Oyster Bay and Old Brookville Cemetery as well as St. John’s Church Cemetery, a goal his parents encouraged him to scale down for practicality. Even focusing on St. John’s alone has required meticulous work, including reviewing cemetery records to double-check every name.
But the effort is already paying off. This year, for the first time, students from the high school’s Interact Club, which previously raised money to display flags on the school lawn for Veterans Day, took over the planting of flags in the cemetery. Thanks to Hertlein’s detailed map, they were able to honor nearly every veteran without missing graves.
“It turned out really well,” Hertlein said. “It looked like we had done almost everyone, which is amazing, because in previous years we’ve missed so many names.”
Butt, 87, served in the Navy from 1956 to 1986, active and reserves, and retired as a chief radioman. He remembered Hertlein attending flag placements even before he officially joined the scouts.
“Zach joined his parents who were troop leaders and older brother who was a scout before he even could join the scouts,” Butt wrote in an email. “We were so happy to pass the torch to the OBHS Interact Club. We know they will continue to honor our local veterans on Memorial Day.”
Hertlein’s project came together over the course of the school year, beginning last fall. Working with cemetery Supervisor Brian Pierce, he used Pierce’s original layout and mapped each grave, section by section.
“We used the coordinate feature on the Apple Maps to find out the exact coordinates of where that grave would be,” Hertlein explained. “And then we put all that information that’s on the gravestone into a spreadsheet.”
The project is still in progress, but he has already created a bronze plaque, which has been installed at the cemetery to guide future volunteers, a physical marker to help preserve local memory as older generations pass the torch.
Zachary’s mother, Marian Hertlein, said the project reflects a deeply held family ethos of service and follow-through.
“We believe in giving back, obviously, and helping the kids do what they’re passionate about,” Marian said. “He used to love listening to Reginald Butt tell his stories, and he always wanted to do something for the legion.”
For Butt, seeing young people take over the effort is especially rewarding. “I think it gives us as veterans great peace of mind,” he wrote, “to know that all we’ve done over many decades to honor those that came before us will continue with this generation.”
“This project is important to me because of the history behind it,” said Zachary, who hopes to complete the project by next year and to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. “These are veterans that have served, and their legacy and their honor — it’s something that people need to know about to actually respect.”
