American Legion post honors the fallen with poppies

CRESTVIEW — Motorists may have noticed something different as they passed American Legion Post 75 for the past two weeks.

The post, located at 898 E. James Lee Blvd., put up a poppy field May 18 to help the community remember the meaning of Memorial Day.

“It’s a tradition within the auxiliary,” post President Della Gliesche said.

The field consists of American flags, crosses and homemade poppy flowers.

The flowers are made by a group from Heroes Express. They used red tablecloths, landscape spikes and copper wire to make the poppies.

“We usually have one person in charge of that committee and three or four here at the post that help with it,” Gliesche said. “We get the Boy Scouts or the Young Marines to help set it up and plant it.”

According to britishlegion.org.uk, the poem "In Flanders Field" inspired an American academic named Moina Michael "to adopt the poppy in memory of those who had fallen in the war, and she campaigned to get it adopted as an official symbol of remembrance across the United States."

The post has been putting the field together since 2001. Gliesche said the process normally takes anywhere from 2 1/2 to three hours. The group puts up as many as 2,500 flowers in the field.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: American Legion post honors the fallen with poppies