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Field of flags honoring Sept. 11 victims, soldiers opens LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) -- A field of nearly 2,400 American flags honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the soldiers who've died in the Middle East since then has opened adjacent a middle school. Several hundred people turned out for Saturday's dedication of the two-acre Hoosier Healing Field next to Tecumseh Middle School in Lafayette. Each flag has the name and information about a member of the U.S. military killed in the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, or the name of police officers, firefighters or other emergency personnel who lost their lives in the 2001 terrorist attacks. "I believe these flags represent not only a remembrance. They represent the ideals that the United States of America can be a beacon of hope for the entire world," said Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarsk.
The Business Masters Exchange Club in Lafayette raised $30,000 for the flags and other supplies for the exhibit that will be open 24 hours a day until closing ceremonies on May 30. Flags honoring Marine Cpl. Bryan Wilson, 22, of Independence, and Army Spc. Luke Frist, 20, of rural Brookston were placed near the stage. Wilson died Dec. 1, 2004 after a Humvee in which he was riding crashed in Al Anbar Province in Iraq. Frist, a member of the Lafayette-based 209th Quartermaster Company, a U.S. Army Reserve unit, was killed Jan. 2, 2004, when the truck in which he was riding struck a land mine near Ramadi, Iraq. "Luke Frist was my best friend. I was one of those who witnessed his death," Sgt. Dustin Maxfield told the crowd. "The last time I saw my friend, he spoke no words. I only watched as he was being loaded on a Medivac, an air ambulance. There are wounds of war that forever scar our minds and hearts." |
