AN AVENUE OF RED, WHITE AND BLUE: Cemetery entrance fills with flags to honor Hancock County veterans

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GREENFIELD — Stars and stripes line the street once more.

More than 800 American flags now flank the road leading into Park Cemetery in Greenfield, each one bearing the name of a U.S. military veteran from Hancock County who has died. The Avenue of Flags is an annual tradition that stretches back decades and has been able to continue thanks to the town’s patriotism and some helpful volunteers.

The able assistance and the initiative’s finely tuned system allowed all the flags to go up in their evenly spaced rows after about an hour on Saturday. Workers used identifiers on each flagpole and diagrams to determine which star-spangled banner went in which PVC pipe base buried in the lawn. Each flag goes in the same spot every year so that the corresponding veteran’s family and friends will know where to find it.

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Bob Workman, commander of the Greenfield Veterans Honor Guard, Hancock County veterans service officer and a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran, estimated the Avenue of Flags has been returning annually for about 30 years. The local American Legion started the tradition before the city’s honor guard took it over about a decade ago.

Park Cemetery will remain covered in the colors for about two weeks, and the flags will stand in the background of next Monday’s Memorial Day service.

“A lot of people love to come down here and just look at this,” Workman said, gazing out at the building mass of red, white and blue above the green lawn as volunteers placed the flagpoles.

Families of Hancock County veterans who have died can buy a flag for $50. A dog tag with the veteran’s name and branch of service gets attached. Workman said one of the oldest veterans recognized in the memorial, if not the oldest, is Joseph Shelby, whose tag indicates he fought in the War of 1812.

There are 1,000 flagpole bases in Park Cemetery for the Avenue of Flags. Workman reckons that’s enough for another 15 years or so before more rows will need to be added. He said 12 new flags have joined the event this year.

Volunteer turnout for the setup day has remained strong over the years, Workman said, calling Greenfield “a very patriotic town.”

Community members contributed $250,000 to the city’s veterans park during the Great Recession, he recalled. Recently, it only took about a week to raise the $15,000 needed for a contribution toward a new van for transporting veterans from Hancock County to medical appointments in Indianapolis, he added.

“It’s just unbelievable what people do,” Workman said.

Setting up the flags used to take several days before a more streamlined process was implemented several years ago, he said. Workers used to rove around with metal detectors looking for metal flagpole bases that they’d mark with spray paint.

Efforts improved even more a few years ago after Greenfield-Central High School football players started coming out to help.

“It was a bunch of old guys out here trying to put this stuff together before, and it just took forever,” Workman said. “Five flags in a sleeve are actually kind of heavy, for us anyway. The football guys take a couple of them at a time; that doesn’t bother them.”

Travis Nolting, Greenfield-Central’s football coach, said the team’s participation teaches them the value of volunteerism and sacrifice.

“I think it’s a good opportunity for us to give back to the community, and also to honor those men who have gone and made the sacrifices necessary for us to be able to play football and live in this great nation that we live in,” Nolting said.

Brent Hager, a Marine veteran, was among the volunteers who came out Saturday. He said those who lost their lives while serving in the military were on his mind as he worked.

“You take that moment of silence to yourself and you pay respect to those people that gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country,” he said.

Hager felt it was important for his son, a G-C football player, to help out, too.

“Hopefully it teaches the kids something a little bit about patriotism, something a little bit about where they came from,” he said. “I definitely try to instill that in my children.”

Walter Baran, who served in the Navy for 20 years and currently serves as commander of the VFW post in Greenfield, said the Avenue of Flags keeps the memories of local veterans alive.

“We still need to honor our veterans that pass on,” he said. “They still need their last ‘Oorah.’”

Ralph Hand, a Marine veteran and past commander of the American Legion in Greenfield, said he was encouraged by the way so many cooperate to get the job done.

“It’s such an honor to see everybody come in and work together to honor all the veterans,” he said.

Park Cemetery foreman Jim Sweet said he has looked forward to the Avenue of Flags every year for about two decades. His father, the late Ray Sweet, served in the Army and has a flag in the memorial.

“They sacrifice for us,” he said of U.S. military veterans. “Without them, we’d be nothing.”