Mikel Burroughs, a retired U.S. Army colonel, is conducting a military operation of a different kind these days.

Oh, there are still plenty of folks in uniform and lots of logistics involved; it’s just there’s no defense-sized budget to back him up.

Yet.

Burroughs, through his nonprofit organization Victory for Veterans — which strives to prevent veteran suicide — is on a mission to ensure that every veteran buried in Denver’s Fort Logan National Cemetery, and nine other national cemeteries across the country, is remembered on Memorial Day.

Remembered with a thank you and a single rose placed at the foot of each grave.

“We were trying to come up with a self-funding event for our nonprofit and pay honor and respect to those individuals who made the ultimate sacrifice,” Burroughs said from his home in Conroe, Texas.

His volunteers are numerous, and his prescribed protocol is simple.

Before a rose is placed on the veteran’s grave, Burroughs asks that the individual veteran’s name be said aloud and thanked for their service to the nation.

“Now myself, being a retired colonel,” he said, “I come to the position of attention, and I salute, and I thank them by name.”

Burroughs’s initial theater of operation?

Fort Logan.

With more than 122,000 interments in the 214-acre cemetery, Burroughs began his Flower on Every Grave operation in 2017 with just 500 roses.

Since then, the project has expanded to cemeteries in Texas, Wyoming, North Carolina, and Minnesota.

“Our goal is to add two cemeteries every year,” Burroughs said, “and eventually cover all 155 national cemeteries across the country on Memorial Day.”

However, expansion requires funding.

Burroughs, who starts planning for the annual Memorial Day event in early November doesn’t mince words when says more financial support is needed.

But he says as much as folks like the project, his biggest challenge has been securing corporate sponsors to help pay for the roses.

“We also use it (the FOEG event) as a fundraiser,” Burroughs said. “Our nonprofit’s primary mission is to reduce veteran suicides, so for every dollar that’s donated for the roses, we keep 50 cents for our mission to provide online peer support for veterans suffering from PTSD, traumatic brain injury, military sexual trauma and other invisible wounds.”

The remaining 50 cents covers the cost of the flowers.

Last year, Burroughs said with the help of 100 volunteers, including Lakewood Scout Troop 114, approximately 13,000 roses were placed on graves in less than 90 minutes.

This year’s Flower on Every Grave event begins at 8 a.m. at Fort Logan Cemetery, 4400 W. Kenyon Ave., Denver, Colorado.

Burroughs said while he is grateful for all donations but hopes for monthly donors to help sustain the project.

To learn more about Victory for Veterans and the Flower on Every Grave Project, visit www.victoryforveterans.org.