Yesterday morning, a group of Bellwood-Antis Middle and High School students, along with administrators and staff members gathered outside the school to watch an American flag slowly ascend the school’s flag pole.
What made this flag special was that it had traveled a long way to be apart of this special occasion. This particular flag flew at Fernandez-Long-Plank, Iraq, an American base used for the global war on terrorism.
The flag was sent back to the United States to Mr. Randy Miller, an industrial arts teacher at Bellwood-Antis Middle School.
“My best friend since childhood is stationed there and sent me this flag along with a certificate of authenticity that this flag flew over their camp on January 19, 2005. He sent it to me and ask me to fly it at my home. I thought it would be better flown at our school. I asked our administration and got the go ahead,” said Miller.
Miller’s friend, Sergeant Clyde Moore explained in an email that when he arrived, the camp was offering to fly the flags for anyone who was interested.
Sergeant Moore, along with two others, Specialist Donald Krahe and Sergeant David Zabicki were all interested and thought it was a good idea for Christmas gifts or just to be able to send back to family and friends in the States.
“The three of us spent the next couple weeks lining up the tools and supplies to build the shadow boxes. We didn’t have the tools here, so we went to another company who had carpentry workers in it and used their tools,” said Moore, via email to Miller. “All together, the three of us built about 30 boxes and sent them back home.”
During their project, the three soldiers did run into one problem, locating flags.
“The store on the post, called the PX, didn’t have a constant supply, so I went online and ordered them from a company in Georgia. The first order was for 50,” said Moore, who planned on selling the extra flags to others in his group. However, after one day, all the flags were gone. Moore then ordered 200 more flags, which disappeared almost as fast.
Moore said, “We took a group picture on Christmas morning, flew a flag and sent it to the Pittsburgh Steelers, thanking them for an enjoyable season.”
Others have sent flags to their church, school, boy scout clubs, moose lodges, employers, and of course family and friends.
Moore sent flags to each of his siblings and one to his mother for Christmas. He also sent one to the prison where he is a guard in his hometown of Butler.
Sergeant Moore has served in the National Guard for 18 years.
