Photo By David Moore | Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, New Jersey Army National Guard Sgt....... read more read more
By 1st Sgt. David Moore
Joint Area Support Group-Central Public Affairs
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- If there is one place Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Joint Area Support Group-Central will remember, it's a pole with a squeaky pulley where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of personal American flags were raised, lowered, folded and sent home.
Why military personnel gathered around the flag pole at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad varied. Some said the flag was flown to honor a family veteran or loved one lost in combat from another war, or simply as a reminder that they are still serving in Iraq for freedom.
For New Jersey Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Juan Plata-Santos, a native of Levittown, Pa., and an Operation Desert Storm veteran, the flag ceremony represents completion of a mission he first started about 19 years ago, serving with the 20th Engineer Battalion (Airborne) to liberate Kuwait.
"When we found out the war was over, we were about 60 miles from Baghdad and we were told to turn around and go back," Plata-Santos said of being near Al Najaf in 1991. "Being here now, I wanted to be a part of history of raising the American flag where a dictator used to be and stand in the same place almost 20 years later that, today for Americans as well as Iraqis, represents freedom."
"What I started then ended well. Ten years from now when you hear about Iraq and the term 'palace' or 'Embassy,' you can tell your children and your grandchildren you were there. I can show them that American flag," he explained.
As the day grew closer to return to the government of Iraq the building formerly known to Americans and Iraqis alike as the Republican Palace, then the U.S. Embassy-Baghdad and finally the U.S. Embassy Annex, flag ceremonies held by uniformed personnel grew.
Command Sgt. Maj. David Kenna, JASG-C command sergeant major and a resident of Newfield, N.J., became the person in charge of the flag ceremonies shortly after the Marines left this past year to prepare for the New Embassy Complex opening in Baghdad.
"Every day, more groups would go to that flag pole. On the final days, people were rushing to that flag pole. I believe everyone who raised their flags on that flag pole knew the symbolism of raising our national colors over a foreign country's soil, because we are still a nation at war," he said.
A minimum of three personnel began each flag ceremony by taking down the old flag and folding it into a triangle with a partner. Then a new flag taken out of a package or box was hooked and raised by one service member, while remaining troops saluted as it travelled up and down the flag pole. Once the flag was retrieved, two participants would undergo the ceremonial process of folding it into the legendary triangle.
The flag pole was protected by 12-foot-high, concrete T-walls, but when a flag was raised it could be seen flying above the barriers — never hidden — for all passing to see.
Kenna estimated JASG-C personnel flew close to 250 flags on the pole, but an exact count of flags flown in the past three months is anyone's guess. It appeared that Veterans Day and Christmas Day were the busiest times for raising flags.
Sgt. Brian Kofsky, JASG-C Command Directorate, said the flag he flew was sent home to his family. "The flag is a symbol that I am thinking of them. It's my connection to my family," he said.
Flying the flag at the former U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was looked at by all services as both a privilege and a benefit. Early accounts of what became a palace tradition note that prior to the Marines, the Pennsylvania Army National Guard began the flag raising ceremonies.
When the grounds were vacated Dec. 30, it's likely a New Jersey Army National Guard Soldier was one of the last at the flag pole.
| Date Taken: | 01.08.2009 |
| Date Posted: | 01.08.2009 03:17 |
| Story ID: | 28580 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 305 |
| Downloads: | 165 |
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