A GRAND OLD FLAG

Grand Old Flag

Recently American legion Post 209 of Colorado Springs was cleaning out our Flag retirement box and a flag was found that has a story behind it.
The following is from Sgt Ski our Sgt at Arms.
A Burial Flag for Clifford L. Dennis was found by Eric Testorff and I a couple months ago in Legion Post 209's flag retirement bin. Really no different than any other Burial Flag that we find in the bin, on occasion, other than that the program for Mr. Dennis's funeral was tucked in the folded flag.
It was still folded as how it was presented to his family at his funeral in 1988. I immediately realized that this flag was special because we knew who it was honoring and who it belonged to. Special because it had traveled with his family from his funeral at the Pines Cemetery in Spokane Washington to where ever to Colorado Springs Colorado and eventually to American Legion post 209 flag retirement bin.
I decided to try to find out more about this grand old flag and Mr. Dennis. I began researching on the internet and the only thing I could discover was a picture of the grave marker in Washington State. It showed that Mr. Dennis had served during World War II and an Air Force veteran. Born in 1918 and passing in 1988, living and dying as we all will.
I was able to contact the Thornhill Valley Funeral home that had performed the burial and they indeed had records of the service. Digging further I asked if they may have a contact and why I was wanting to contact a relative. They would not give me the number and I understood why but they did try the contact number but unfortunately it was long disconnected.
Then from my internet digging I contacted the Pines Cemetery where Mr. Dennis is buried. I was able to talk with a curator at the cemetery and tell him of this Grand old flag and how we came into possession of it. They stated that they have a Flag room at the cemetery and would be honored to display it. How excited I was to hear such respect for one of our own.
Well the flag of Mr. Dennis needed a proper display now, so I contacted a friend of ours that we know through our Boy Scout Troop 127. I explained my situation and asked if his son Dutch would be interested in the building of a proper display for Mr. Dennis’s flag and of course he jumped at the opportunity. After working thru the building of the display we had a placard engraved with the information from the funeral announcement. We attached it and an Air Force sticker to the base.
Now it was time to send it to the Pines cemetery. My plan was to ship it Via Fed-x or Ups but someone intervened. To my surprise a member of our post and his wife with whom we had spent time at a recent charity event were in Colorado Springs and she works and lives in Spokane, They have asked if they may transport the flag to Spokane and then on to the Pines Cemetery for display in the honored flag room.
So now the flag is on its way back to where it started its journey from so many years ago.
Respectfully: Stan Kansinski, MSgt USAF, American Legion Post 209 Sgt @ Arms
Submitted by: Robert Caddell, American Legion post 209 Riders President.