Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 20, 1995 TAG: 9502200081
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Stars, stripes and pole of it,
Here's to the Soul of it,
Red, White, and Blue!
-from ``A Toast to the Flag'' by John Daly, recited during the ceremony
Raleigh Scruggs sat in his wheelchair in the back of the sanctuary at Roanoke's New Life Temple Pentecostal Holiness Church and clutched a small, rolled-up American flag in his hand.
Scruggs, a veteran of World War II, came to the church Sunday afternoon to participate in his first Massing of the Colors - a national ceremony conducted by the Military Order of the World Wars.
Its purpose is patriotism. The event is held to rededicate faith in the colors of the flag and to honor the dead and living veterans who have fought for our freedom.
Scruggs and about 300 others sat and watched more than 50 groups - ranging from veterans to law enforcement to Girl Scouts - parade into the church hoisting close to 100 flags.
It was the most flags, and the most groups, that have participated in the 10 years that the Roanoke Valley chapter of the MOWW has held the ceremony, said retired Army Lt. Blair F. Fulton, a member of the local chapter who helped organize Sunday's festivities. Fulton, shot through the neck near the German border in World War II, is also past commander in chief of the national MOWW organization.
Those in attendance Sunday included a long list of dignitaries.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke, delivered the keynote address. Others who spoke included state Sen. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke County; Roanoke Mayor David Bowers; Roanoke County Board of Supervisors Chairman Fuzzy Minnix; Vinton Mayor Charles Hill; and Frank Longaker, the local MOWW chapter commander.
But the day belonged to people such as Scruggs and L.W. Palmer of Roanoke, the only veteran of Iwo Jima at Sunday's ceremony.
Sunday was the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Marine landing on the Pacific island during World War II - site of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war.
And Sunday brought back memories for Palmer, who found himself on Iwo Jima, and in the middle of combat, the day after the Marines landed in 1945.
``Nobody wanted to be there,'' the 73-year-old said. ``I remember the soil. You could sit your rations in it, and they'd be hot before you knew it.''
Palmer, who carried a flag Sunday for Branch 41 of the Fleet Reserve Association, said he was in the hold of a ship off Iwo Jima when the now famous raising of the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi happened.
``We all ran up on deck and started clapping and hollering,'' Palmer remembered. ``We all thought it was over. But it wasn't.''
Scruggs and Palmer weren't sitting next to each other Sunday, but their hearts were in the same place when Shawn O'Neill and Richard Carr, trumpet players for the 29th Division Band of the Virginia National Guard, played an emotional echo rendition of taps.
Palmer stood straight with his flag; Scruggs pushed his eyeglasses up and dabbed underneath them with a white towel. Others saluted. Some held their hands over their hearts.
``It meant a lot to me,'' said Scruggs, 76, who saw combat and was injured during World War II.
Pushing Scruggs' wheelchair Sunday was Robert Smith of Franklin County, a Vietnam veteran who also attended his first Massing of the Colors.
``I saw a lot of body bags during the war,'' he said. ``And today means a lot. I just had to come see what this was all about.''
by CNB