Slideshow: Memorial Day Flag Garden Returns to Boston Common

Boston, MA - Volunteers carefully placed 37,000 American flags along Flag Staff Hill on Boston Common Thursday - one tribute for every Massachusetts service member who has died since the Revolutionary War.

The sea of red, white and blue unfurls at the foot of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the center of the park, just behind the Common's Frog Pond. The flags will stay in place through Memorial Day weekend.

This year's annual memorial was assembled by hundreds of volunteers, organized by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund. It is made possible through donations and thanks to Boston-based John Hancock Financial.

The Heroes Fund hosts a ceremony to remember and honor the state's military heroes Thursday at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. They will read the names of Massachusetts servicemen and women who have fallen in the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations amidst the thousands of flags planted on the Common as a memorial to their sacrifice and those that came before them.

The ceremony begins at 10:30 a.m.

>> Photos by Alison Bauter, Patch staff