Service Flags for fallen vets

[Griff Murphey]

For the last ten years or so, I have maintained a stock of desk top Service flags of the various branches which mount on these little plastic bases. Anyone I know of who is a veteran and a friend or other associate who I hear of passing, I take the appropriate flag to the funeral home and place it at that individual's guest register.

I started doing this because of decorating my family's graves. Time and circumstances permitting, I customize the flag base by adding the man's photo from his obit, inside the base. Sometimes the newspaper online will feature a color photo that can be printed off. For a special guy whose military career I know about, I have added purple hearts, etc. using the mini-medals I can buy locally and inexpensively.

You want to include a card so the family knows that they can keep the flag and that it is not a loaner from the funeral home.

Yesterday a patient told me that her nephew, Houston Taylor, had been killed in Afghanistan and will be buried next week near Fort Worth. I offered her a U.S. Army flag and she was very glad to have it.

[phil441]

Griff, I know this is a slightly old thread, but do the funeral homes know of your kind offer?
I'm sure many of the families involved would be appreciative of knowing of your care and your offer of a keepsake.
I'm also sure you wouldn't be expected to personally deliver them all but the funeral homes would probably be receptive to the idea of receiving such a memento by mail and placing it next to the register with the understanding that it was to be presented to the bereaved after the burial.
Just a thought..... And Thanks

[Griff Murphey]

I pretty much confine my donated flags to individuals I know and their relatives. I definitely do it for my patients, and dentists. I buy them retail and they wind up costing close to $5 each, so I cannot afford to do it for everyone. When I take them to the funeral home I try to put them next to the register in the viewing room. If the person is not lying in state I ask the funeral home to give the flag to the family. About half of the time I receive an acknowledgment and then the other half - nothing. But I still like to do it. Recently a doctor who treated me as a child passed away at 90. I found out he had been the medical officer with the 6th Rangers on the liberation of Cabanatuan POW camp, and actually liberated the camp doctor who had been a classmate of his in med school - I never knew this! I customized his with all of the ribbons I thought he was entitled to, clipped from a military catalog, laminated and glued to the base. Another thing I have found is that if you go online you can often print off a color photo of that person, if you want, as opposed to using the one in the paper.