PROFILE 2016: With all due respect
Published 11:37 am Thursday, March 17, 2016
American Flag program ensures new flag adorns the old U.S. 80 Bridge every three months.
Bill Curtis stood on the bluff at Navy Circle, the hot October sun beating down on his weathered 94-year-old face.
The eyes that had witnessed the D-Day invasion at Normandy 71 years prior looked toward the Mississippi River. The lips that had performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and brought a soldier back to life all those decades ago remained stoic as the flag he fought for and served under was raised high once again.
This time, it was in his honor.
As the giant 20- by 30-foot flag was trucked out to the middle of the U.S. 80 Bridge and shepherded up its superstructure, Curtis became part of a Vicksburg tradition. Every few months a new flag, paid for by families or friends of veterans, servicemen or anyone who wants to, is purchased by the Army Navy Club of Vicksburg and raised skyward.
“It just seemed appropriate. We had talked about it at a family gathering and it seemed like a good thing to do,” said Curtis’ daughter Beth Maggio. “It is a great tradition, and a great honor to be able to put a flag up there. Especially for somebody like dad.”
The idea of raising a flag above the bridge was hatched by Vicksburg resident Blanche Millsaps. Inspired by a similar setup she’d seen on a bridge in Washington state, she approached the Mississippi River Commission about doing the same thing on the Old Mississippi River Bridge.
A 40-foot tall flagpole was erected as close to the Mississippi-Louisiana line as possible, and the first American flag went up over the river on April 13, 1994. Shortly before Millsaps died in June 2010, Army Navy Club member Lewis Decell approached her about taking over the project. His organization has handled it ever since.
“We didn’t have any civic-oriented project. I suggested they let me talk to Blanche about taking over the project. She said it was an answer to her prayers. She was sick at the time and wasn’t sure if it would continue,” Decell said.
A total of 53 flags have been donated since 1994 — 31 by Millsaps and 22 through the Army Navy Club. They wear out and are replaced every three months. A new flag costs around $600 and is paid for by donations, but Decell said anyone who wants to sponsor one is welcome to give what they can.
“If somebody wants to support the flag project, they don’t have to buy a flag. We’ll take $10 or whatever donations we can get,” Decell said.
More than money, donors need patience. Decell said he has nearly 20 donors committed to purchasing a flag, enough to create a waiting list that stretches to July 2019. Curtis’ family waited about two years for their flag to fly — and that was after getting bumped up the list.
Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney had been slotted to have his flag raised in October 2015, but gave up his spot so the elderly Curtis would be assured of seeing his fly high.
Maggio said she was happy to wait, considering it meant so many people were dedicated to the project.
“Isn’t that awesome?” Maggio said.
Decell said the flags are typically donated by families wanting to honor a veteran or someone in the family currently serving in the armed forces. Some, like Laura Callaway, try to honor the entire family.
“We’re a long line of military personnel,” she said. “We go all the way back to the Civil War, Vietnam, the Bay of Pigs, Desert Storm, Operation Enduring Freedom. We’ve had family in all of those conflicts. It’s our duty to be an American, and we’re part of it.”
Not all of the flags have honored servicemen or women, however. Tina Foley, whose donated flag flew several years ago, wanted to honor her son Robert Foley III. He died in 2009 at the age of 33 and often waved or flew a flag at Warren Central sporting events when he was in high school.
Foley said she wanted to honor her son’s memory, as well as that of soldiers who didn’t make it back home.
“I just did it for all of the wars that’s been. He was going out to Warren Central and everybody was riding around supporting the troops. He really touched a lot of people’s lives,” Foley said. “I look at it as the next family member. It’s touching to see it fly. It’s also sad because some people didn’t come back.”
Vicksburg resident Stan Collins donated his to honor his wife Melissa “Liesa” Hearn, who died of a heart attack in December 2012. Hearn was on the Miss Mississippi production staff and was well-known in Vicksburg, and Collins said the flag seemed like a fitting tribute.
“After I did all my boo-hooing, somebody told me about that flag. I came down there and paid $500 and we had our little ceremony,” Collins said. “I want to do one for my dad, too. I think it’s a really good program. It honors a lot of special people in this community.”
Seeing the American flag stokes a lot of emotions. For Foley and Callaway, it was the memories of loved ones. For Curtis, it was of a time long ago when, serving on a Coast Guard rescue boat off the Normandy coast, he pulled a drowning soldier out of the water and revived him by giving him mouth-to-mouth.
For all of them, seeing this particular flag invokes another emotion — a sense of home.
The flag on the Old Mississippi River Bridge has become a Vicksburg icon in the 21 years it’s flown and a symbol to its residents that they’ve made it back safely from wherever their journeys have taken them.
“Most of the Vicksburg people that make a comment about it say they know they’re home when they see it,” Decell said. “It’s important to me, because I think it’s important that people know the sacrifice veterans and non-veterans have made for the United States. It’s a flying icon to God Bless America.”