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Presenting the Flag

By Hannah Frisch

On September 19, VVAW supported a remarkable anti-war rally in the heart of wealthy Republican territory in the Chicago suburbs. The event in Barrington, Illinois honored those who had fallen in the Iraq war and called for bringing the troops home and ending the war. Representatives from local churches and a mosque spoke at the opening ceremony. Cards bearing the names of fallen soldiers and long-stemmed lilies were handed out to about 1,000 participants. Local churches tolled bells for each of the 1,023 deaths of U.S. combat troops as demonstrators marched in solemn procession behind a horse-drawn wagon carrying a flag-draped coffin to a local memorial park for fallen firefighters and police. There, members of VVAW and a representative of Veterans for Peace served as pallbearers, carrying the coffin up to the base of the speakers' platform. Rob Sarra, a founding member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and a close supporter of VVAW, gave a moving speech opposing the war in Iraq. Two members of military families spoke next. Then the flag on the coffin was folded while a poem was read by Pat Vogel. In the tradition of presenting the flag to the relatives of the deceased, organizer Paul Vogel told the crowd, "You are the brothers and sisters of the soldiers who have died in Iraq, so I am presenting the flag to all of you." People then lined up to place the lilies on the coffin.

The march and rally had its origin in a display of flags representing dead soldiers that Paul Vogel placed in the front yard of his temporary staffing business. Local people would stop in to tell Vogel that they agreed with opposing the war but honoring the soldiers, and the Vogel family got the idea to organize an event. Paul's son Aaron had just returned from Iraq after serving there with his Army Reserve unit, the 652nd Engineering Company from Ellsworth, Wisconsin. The unit was assigned not to engineering but to MP duty, and four of Aaron's comrades were killed in Iraq. Aaron worked on the website for the event, and his mother and grandmother helped with publicity. Aaron was shown in a Chicago Tribune photo sitting in the yard in front of his father's business surrounded by the flags representing the soldiers. At the rally, he joined Iraq Veterans Against the War.

VVAW co-sponsored the event and helped promote it. According to Paul Vogel, VVAW's participation made it easier for other veterans to come out and support the march. Iraq Veterans Against the War, American Friends Service Committee and Military Families Speak Out also co-sponsored. The event was widely publicized on Chicago-area television and public radio stations and was covered in the Tribune and in local suburban papers.

Paul Vogel also reports that the event will be sending a $500 check to Army Emergency Relief, an organization that helps the families of Army Reservists and National Guard.