CRESTVIEW — The community’s own “Flanders Field” memorial has again sprouted along U.S. Highway 90 on the lawn below American Legion Post 75 as veterans and their supporters look ahead to Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day observances.
Friday evening, post volunteers started placing white crosses in several neat rows, scattering their ranks with red artificial poppies as the memorial was completed Saturday morning.
Against the post’s white retaining wall, black silhouettes of soldiers in combat poses flank a “Flanders Field” banner. East of the display, more silhouettes recreate the flag raising on Iwo Jima.
“This year someone has gone out of their way to ceremoniously set it up,” an anonymous caller and post member told the News Bulletin. “They did set it up nicely.”
Because of a 1915 poem, “In Flanders Fields,” by Canadian World War I physician Lt. Col. John McCrae, the poppy became a symbol of allied veterans and their fallen comrades.
The American Legion post’s Flanders Field will be dedicated to North Okaloosa County war dead during a Memorial Day ceremony, 11 a.m. May 30.
A lunch will follow the dedication. The public is invited to both events.
—
WANT TO GO?
These Memorial Day observances are scheduled on Monday, May 30:
●10 a.m.: Disabled American Veterans Memorial Day observance, Live Oak Park Memorial Cemetery, North Avenue at Mapoles Street
●11 a.m.: Flanders Field dedication, American Legion Post 75, 898 East James Lee Blvd., Crestview
●Noon: Memorial Day lunch, American Legion Post 75. Information: 689-3195
FLANDERS FIELD
Crestview American Legion Post 75’s “Flanders Field” is named for a poem about the Belgian site of the May 1915 Second Battle of Ypres. Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae penned the poem, called “In Flanders Fields,” upon the death of a friend, Lt. Alexis Helmer, during the battle.
The first stanza is:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.”
Source: www.greatwar.co.uk
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview field of crosses and poppies to be dedicated on Memorial Day