- - Press coverage
This article was published in THE WEBSTER TIMES Friday, July 6, 2007
‘Field of Flags’ honors fallen soldiers
BY HADLEY ROBINSON, TIMES STAFF WRITER
OXFORD — There are 3,872 American flags on the lawn in front of Oxford United Methodist Church. Next week, there may be a few more. The flags represent each American fatality in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The “Field of Flags” is a traveling exhibit that originated at the Somers Congregational Church in Somers, Conn. in October 2005 with 2,231 flags.
Pat and Dick Casagranda saw the poignant display on cable access and proposed bringing it to Oxford.
Organizers stress that the exhibit is not a political statement. “We are not for or against the war,” Pat Casagranda said. “We are just honoring the American fatalities.”
Most recently, the flags were displayed in Westborough but the field of flags has traveled from Connecticut to North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, growing in number with each stop.
Each of the thousands of flags is placed six inches into the ground and stands 12 inches from the next. A group of volunteers from the church came to set up the display and put the flags in the ground June 22 and 23. Casagranda mentioned one woman stopped by and said her husband is in Iraq and she wanted to help set up the exhibit. Casangranda said this is just one example of the community support and effort that has come together to make the exhibit possible.
Aside from the flags, a name board lists the casualties. Two binders sit beside the board, one for guests to leave their comments and feelings and the other with page after page of names of the fallen.
“This is a way to honor and remember people in a way that is dignified and touching,” Oxford United Methodist Church Reverend Paula Fletcher said. “It’s so important to remember people.”
Each flag represents not only each life lost in war, but the family and friends who were touched by that life.
But more than just family and friends of the fallen are affected by the display. After less than a week in Oxford, organizers had seen dozens of people stop by the exhibit. Wet eyed observers roam through, some without saying a word and others talking to church organizers or signing the guest book.
“You stop and see and think that every one of these was a life and a part of a family,” Casagranda said.
According to Casagranda, the display has been well received by the community so far.
“Everybody is very for it,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything against it.”
One area on the side of the lawn, not covered by flags is roped off with patriotic streamers. That area is for the flags that will need to be added during the five-week display.
“Every week we will put up new flags for the fatalities of the week,” Casagranda said.
Sunday, June 24, the church had a dedication ceremony where members of the clergy spoke about the display and said prayers. The Oxford and Bartlett High Schools’ Junior ROTC cadets presented the colors.
Sunday, Aug. 5, at 6 p.m., a closing ceremony will be held at the field of flags and the next day the flags will be gone and sent to the next town interested in displaying them, which is still to be decided.
“Whatever your political views, suddenly there’s a way to honor [the fallen] and we can all come together to do that,” Fletcher said.
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and for a link to an article published in THE WORCESTER TELEGRAM
Field of Flags an honorable and respectful success
• THE WEBSTER TIMES •
Friday, September 7, 2007
OXFORD — The Oxford United Methodist Church was honored to have displayed the Field of Flags on the front lawn of the church for six weeks starting June 23. The week before the display was set up, Rev. Paula J. Fletcher said, “Like the world at large, we, in this sanctuary, hold different opinions [about the war]. Some of us want to end the war right now; some of us want to stay and see it through to the end. But the Field of Flags does not speak to those questions. The Field of Flags is a statement of honor and respect for the individual lives that have been lost … lives that were given out of love for country.” Pat and Dick Cassagranda saw the Field of Flags at the Unitarian Universalist Congregational Society of Westborough and brought the idea back to us, Joe Bouchard, chairperson of the Board of Trustees, and church members Phyllis and Sam Carey, Shirley and Carl Thomas, Don Johnson, Bruce Denson, Don Latham, and many, many others helped with the display in some way. On Sunday evening, June 24, about 250 people attended a service of dedication, and as Pastor Fletcher said that night, “the flags stand here to show the families and friends of these service people that we stand with them in their grief and remember them in our prayers.”
Several other members of Oxford clergy participated in the ceremony. ROTC elements from Oxford High School and Bartlett High School in Webster presented the colors, and choir members Sue Stone and Nancy Bouchard sang, “God Will Make a Way.” Many veterans and non-veterans attended out of respect to the fallen, as the service ended with the playing of “Taps.” Special lighting was added to the display so that people could visit the exhibit at night as candlelight flickered from our sanctuary’s amber-colored windows; service flags from the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard were placed on the serrated walls of our building; and a sign highlighted the area set aside to place flags in honor of recent casualties. The Field of Flags had more impact than we could ever have imagined. It evoked deep emotions from the thousands and thousands of people in Oxford who saw the display every day (some of whom stopped and signed our guest book and others who drove by and saluted or sounded their car horns or just walked quietly among the rows of flags); people from other cities and towns in Massachusetts; and visitors from other states, and a few from other countries.
We had extensive media coverage. Most businesses in Oxford displayed posters announcing the display; area radio stations aired announcements and updates; newspapers published press releases that we submitted and wrote news articles about the display; local cable access television documented the set-up and the dedication service; and our own Web site, www.oxfordumc.net, includes many photos taken of the display. The idea for the Field of Flags originated at the Somers Congregational Church in Somers, Conn., as that church displayed 2,231 flags in October 2005. Those flags then moved on to other churches in Connecticut, Virginia, and North Carolina. Last October, St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in North Grafton purchased a second set of traveling flags to be displayed in Massachusetts.
Closing ceremonies for the Oxford display were held Aug. 5. Luanne Crosby sang the song “Field of Flags,” which she wrote; Master Sergeant Robin Hinson (U.S.A.F. Ret.) and 1st Sgt. Joe Girard (USA Ret.) folded a 9 and a half by 5 foot flag (representing the 4,004 smaller flags) and presented it to the Rev. Linda Stetter of the First United Methodist Church in Marlboro, as 21 veterans in attendance saluted. Boy Scouts from Troop 147 passed out “candles of hope” to the audience, and Mr. Leslie Lambert played “Taps.” The next day, the flags left Oxford to be displayed in Marlboro. As the display goes from church to church, “The Field of Flags” is similar to a prayer chain, offering prayers of gratitude for the devotion to country and the loyalty of those who died for the principles of our nation, and prayers for the families who grieve their loss.
-Submitted by Bob Shedd of the Oxford United Methodist Church
