Flags

Heritage Academy National Honor Society students helped to create a display of flags, one for each person who died on 9/11. The display was set up Aug. 27 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Mercersburg, Pa. The students were helping a Boy Scout earn his Eagle Scout badge. The American Legion in Mercersburg will join the VFW on Sunday, Sept. 11, from 1 to 5 p.m. for an open house at the VFW. During the open house, scenes from the tragedy will be shown. There will be a ceremony at 4 p.m. by the flag pole.

gregs@herald-mail.com Mackenzie Blair and a few of his Boy Scout buddies were joking around Thursday afternoon, like teenagers do, but they had come to Antietam National Battlefield for something serious. Blair, 13, of Hagerstown, said he was in sixth-grade math class on Sept. 11, 2001, when he heard the news about the terrorist attacks. His mother picked him up from school early. Nearly three years later, he was in line with more than 100 other volunteers on the historic battlefield to adorn a plowed cornfield with 3,000 U.S. flags.

gregs@herald-mail.com People who walked through the Healing Field at Antietam National Battlefield said the display brought up strong emotions and bittersweet memories. The Healing Field, which is being taken down today, actually is a plowed cornfield that had more than 3,000 U.S. flags planted instead. All but two flags had a name of a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks attached. "I like this," said Carol Harne, 60, of Myersville, Md. "Really, it's awesome.

GREENCASTLE, Pa. -- To 12-year-old Garrett Sutton, the American flag is more than a few stars and stripes waving in the wind. "It reminds me of our troops and I feel something special for the men and women who have died out there," he said. "It (the flag) deserves our respect. " Garrett and 25 members of Boy Scout troops 99 and 88 paid final respects to 400 U.S. flags on Monday by giving each a proper retirement and a final salute. There is only one preferred way to retire a flag, and that is by flame, said Boy Scout Unit Commissioner Bill Yoder.

Exchange Clubs of Washington County are hosting a display of 3,412 American flags at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg. The display is part of a national program, with more than 30 Healing Fields registered in the United States. The flags honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and those who died in Shanksville, Pa. For information, go to healingfield.org on the Web. The opening program will begin at 4 p.m. today.

anotarianni@herald-mail.com The morning of Sept. 17, 1862, A.P. Hill led the Tennessee division of the Confederate military forces on a 17-mile trek from Harpers Ferry, W.Va., into battle at Antietam. On Saturday, Sept. 17, 2005, the Tennessee division re-enactment group trudged the same path in an effort to educate people about American history while raising funds to restore the flags carried by Hill and his troops. John DeSalis, 40, of Chambersburg, Pa., helped organize the commemorative event, which now is in its second year.

scottb@herald-mail.com Jodie McCoy said Monday she was proud to be one of 50 Sharpsburg Elementary School students placing flags on graves at Antietam National Cemetery. McCoy, 10, said she was proud to be doing the work "because you are helping them and showing respect. " "It is fun, and it is honoring people who made us free," Kelsey Moore, 11, said. "It is actually fun. It is great to be doing it for those who fought for us," Allen Thomas, 11, said. Students from three of the school's fifth-grade classes put flags on most of the grave sites where almost 5,100 veterans and their spouses are buried.

scottb@herald-mail.com If all goes as planned, American flags representing the casualties in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will be erected and flown for three days at Antietam National Battlefield. The Hagerstown and Antietam Exchange clubs plan to sell about 3,000 American-made all-weather flags with the proceeds going to the Parent-Child Center, Millie Lowman, executive director of the Parent-Child Center in Hagerstown, said Tuesday. The flags cost $30 each and there will be an additional charge of $15 for flags that are shipped, she said.

SHARPSBURG - Cub Scouts from Pack 14 in Smithsburg recently toured Antietam National Battlefield, starting at the Visitors Center and then going on to the monuments, including the Irish Brigade Monument near Bloody Lane. The group also went to the National Cemetery and to Burnside Bridge where the Union and Confederate forces battled during the Civil War. Scout units have been placing U.S. flags on the graves at the cemetery as a service project for the descendants of the men who were members of the Irish Brigade from New York and Massachusetts and who fought at Antietam.

Last Saturday, I finished a long journey back through the memories of more than a dozen readers who responded to my call for stories about special veterans who had touched their lives. When I began this search, I said I would give the 10 best story-tellers flags from the "Healing Field" fund-raiser that will be held Independence Day weekend at the Antietam National Battlefield. In a cornfield adjacent to the visitors' center there, 3,031 flags will be flown for three days in honor of those killed during the terrorist attacks of Sept.

For Alekos 2 Go owner Steve Kontos, the Grinch came early. Kontos showed up at work Friday morning to notice some of the lights stolen from his Christmas tree outside and an American flag stolen from the property. “I'm inside prepping, running back and forth, and I noticed out front there was a stack of lightbulbs from the Christmas tree laying on the ground,” he said. “I thought that was weird because they were on last night when we left.” Kontos also realized that the heat was not working when he went inside.

Students in Susan Spurlock's sixth-grade social studies class at Charles Town Middle School participated in a project-based learning assignment titled “To Burn or Not to Burn.” The students analyzed the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance, examined key words and rewrote the pledge in their own words. The students then collaboratively identified the symbolism within “Old Glory” and designed their own flags. After analyzing and discussing the First Amendment rights and polling community members on the question, “Do you believe there should be a First Amendment that makes it legal to burn the flag in protest?

Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts from the Mason-Dixon Council of Boy Scouts of America took part in a local flag ceremony for the Hagerstown March of Dimes Walkathon at Hagerstown Fairgrounds on April 30.

U.S. Army Lt. Lawrence Angle II, born and raised in Hagerstown, made a life-changing decision in July 2008. At age 38, Angle, who was a real estate lawyer in Washington and Frederick counties, left all that he had known behind and shipped out to basic training in the military. “I was tired of being on the sidelines,” Angle said. “We're at war, and I felt like I should do my part.” Deployed with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, known as “Tropic Lightning” based at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, Angle carried the flags of Maryland, Washington County and the city of Hagerstown for the duration of his deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.

While the stars and stripes of the American flag fly high on a daily basis, one day a year, the red, white and blue banner is the object of particular reverence. About 40 people gathered to recognize Flag Day Wednesday afternoon at Hagerstown's annual celebration of the holiday at University Plaza. An AMVETS Post 10 color/honor guard, the Marine Corps League of Hagerstown and Boy Scout Troop 2 all attended the ceremony. Mayor Robert E. Bruchey II and Robert Stouffer Jr., commander of the Sons of AMVETS Department of Maryland, spoke about what the holiday means to them.

Fly your American flag proudly on Thursday in honor of National Flag Day. The idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the flag is believed to have first originated in 1885. B.J. Cigrand, a school teacher, arranged for the pupils in the Fredonia, Wis., Public Schools, District 6, to observe June 14 (the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of “The Stars and Stripes”) as “Flag Birthday.”  It was not until Aug. 3, 1949, that President Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14 of each year as National Flag Day. Ravenwood volunteers Students at Salem Avenue Elementary School in Hagerstown were fortunate again this year to have volunteers visit from Ravenwood Lutheran Village.  Residents Juanita Shank, the late Sara Zenge, Susan Logan and Ellen Phebus, along with staff members Abby Housel and Susan Zimmerer, visited teachers Sara Dillow's and Sandy Melton's classes about twice a month.

Over the past few weeks, I have written columns about the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and our U.S. flag; in the spirit of equal time and space today's column is about the Maryland state flag. Up front, you need to know that most of this column is taken directly from Maryland's Web pages - simply Google Maryland state flag history for further research. First, a little Maryland history, or everything you learned in school about your native state.  Where does Maryland get its name?

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about our nation's “Pledge of Allegiance” to our flag. I received several kind and supportive comments about the column. Some asked for my reference sources, to which I admit most of the information came from searching the Internet. I usually look at two or three different reference sources to ensure the information is essentially the same before I use it in my column. I was pleased that others found the information contained in my column interesting and informative.

Bernie Adkins is a neighbor and good friend of mine who lives just down the road a piece.   In his younger days, he was a Marine, and as I reflect on Veterans Day this year, I thought about five other Marines and a Navy corpsman who made history on a chilled morning in February 1945 on a hill called Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima. America was in the midst of World War II and had also battled an economic depression at home for many years. The war and events were dragging down the morale of the country, and then one day on the front page of every newspaper was a picture of five Marines and a Navy medic raising the American Flag on this Japanese hill.