When I asked Frank Flesher how the National Military Heritage Museum was funded, he reached for his back pocket.

“The reserve is my wallet, the reserve is my retired Army paycheck,” Mr. Flesher said. “That’s what I use to pay utilities here and keep this open.”

It costs about $33,000 a year to keep the place open. And it’s hard to get help who will work 40 to 60 hours a week, like he does, for no pay.

But for the Korean War veteran, it’s a labor of love and concern. Some would say obsessively so. He made it his mission to make sure we don’t forget the ones who fought and died for our freedoms.

“They don’t teach about military heritage, they don’t teach why we’re free people. That’s only because of the military,” he said.

That’s the reason he started the museum. He wanted to supplement the school curriculum and have elementary, high school and college students come down and learn about military heritage. “In over 22 years, we’ve collected a lot of St. Joseph military heritage,” he said.

Mr. Flesher said he recently got a call from a nephew of the late Fred Wanger, who was a police judge in St. Joseph at the end of Word War II. Mr. Wanger held court in the very building that houses the military museum at 701 Messanie. The building also once served as a Marine Corps training center.

The nephew collected his uncle’s World War II artifacts and belongings, and wanted to visit the museum before deciding whether to donate the memorabilia.

“The problem is, what do I tell him about our financial condition?” Mr. Flesher said.

St. Joseph has plenty more decorated and honored armed forces veterans who are not known or recognized, Mr. Flesher added. There’s medal of honor winners and other distinguished service award winners.

“No one recognizes those people,” he lamented. “It’s the same thing that happens to veterans today. What respect do they have? We have very few people show up for the Memorial Day ceremony ... (and) we should have more for the Veterans Day parade.”

Mr. Flesher said he’s also concerned about the young men and women returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Will they be able to get jobs and housing and receive proper medical care? What respect will people show them? Hopefully, it will be the respect he received when he returned home.

“When we went to a local bar or to eat, maybe have a drink, we never paid for one when we were in uniform,” he said. “Someone always bought our meal or our drinks.”

A recent Washington Post article said the caseload at the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims has doubled in recent years. The backlog is only expected to grow.

As we have our cookouts, parties and other beginning-of-summer celebrations this Memorial Day, let’s not forget our veterans, both living and dead. Every one of them deserves our respect. Many of them go off to defend our country and come back with serious mental disorders and addictions. Too often we only see their problems and none of the sacrifices they made.

Veterans performed a duty for us. We have a duty to honor, respect and care for them. Patriotism is more than a having a bumper sticker and wearing a flag lapel pin.

Alonzo Weston’s column runs on Wednesday. He can be reached at alonzo.weston@newspressnow.com.