USMC Sgt's grouping, Afganistan

[P-59A]

presentation flags

First-grade teacher Diane Kalmonson poses with an American flag and certificate that was presented to her during the morning flag ceremony at George White Elementary in Laguna Niguel on Tuesday. Marine SSgt. Jeremy Martinez brought back the flag that was flown over Camp Dwyer in Afghanistan and presented it to Kalmonson. Kalmonson's niece, Lauren Grandcolas, died on United Airlines Flight 93 after it was hijacked and crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

[P-59A]

I just found Sgt. Ellis on line. I sent him a message and photo's of what I have. The ball is in his park as of now.

[P-59A]

I just talked to Sgt. Ellis on the phone and he would like to have his things back. He is going to cover what I paid and we should be good by next week. Thank you guys for your help.

[huntssurplus]

I just talked to Sgt. Ellis on the phone and he would like to have his things back. He is going to cover what I paid and we should be good by next week. Thank you guys for your help.

 

Great job finding and returning the items back to the original owner! A great example of what collecting is all about!

 

Hunt

[Brig]

As for the flags...a Marine Col. Pm'ed me about these. It seems what started out as a way to honor retired vets morphed into a way to thank all sorts of people for all sorts of things. On the face they look freaking cool but the Col. Told me when you peel the onion...not so much. When he was at the embassy in Bagdad they would raise a flag for 20 seconds and then lower it. They made what amounts to production runs of flags for God knows who. I have no idea who these people are or why they rated a flag. They could have been friends, contractors or donors back home.

 

That was my experience at the Baghdad embassy. We ran them up, touched the truck, ran them down...it was an assembly line. Then we turned them over to someone (I don't recall who) who in all likelihood handed them out to civilian employees at the embassy as momentos.

 

Some of my guys in the past were with Presidential Security and 8th & I...they said they did the same by the crateful. Not that we should be surprised, we're in the era of "every student gets a ribbon"....

[ScottG]

First time I went to the roof of the Baghdad Embassy (palace) we were still getting shot at! The last time was when the Saddam heads were coming down, It never occurred to me to run a flag up the pole, let alone hundreds of them. Glad you found SGT Ellis, keep us informed on this fascinating story. Scott

[P-59A]

 

That was my experience at the Baghdad embassy. We ran them up, touched the truck, ran them down...it was an assembly line. Then we turned them over to someone (I don't recall who) who in all likelihood handed them out to civilian employees at the embassy as momentos.

 

Some of my guys in the past were with Presidential Security and 8th & I...they said they did the same by the crateful. Not that we should be surprised, we're in the era of "every student gets a ribbon"....

Sgt. Ellis told me the presentation flags and certificates were for friends of his. It was pretty much as you described, flags were sent out by everyone.

[Brig]

First time I went to the roof of the Baghdad Embassy (palace) we were still getting shot at! The last time was when the Saddam heads were coming down, It never occurred to me to run a flag up the pole, let alone hundreds of them. Glad you found SGT Ellis, keep us informed on this fascinating story. Scott

That wasn't even the pole we used...because of the roof being in range of the red zone, they had a pole on the ground we used for the assembly line. MSG still ran the flag on the roof for all day flight