The Eve of Independence Day

In town squares and on courthouse steps, Americans in small towns and big cities prepare to celebrate the 4th of July. In Kootenai County, Idaho over 100 people gathered at noon to witness a special flag be raised in the Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza. The flag to be raised has significance to the community, as one that was carried by SFC Eric Cookman of the Hayden-based Company B, 321st Engineer Battalion on May 30 in the Al Anbar Province Ramadi, Iraq. The flag was in the 1st Platoon’s B-361 Buffalo during route clearance in support of the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Force. SFC Cookman served on the Kootenai County Local Emergency Planning Committee and the Office of Emergency Management Council before his deployment to Iraq in Sept. 2006, He sent the flag to Sandy Von Behren, director of the Kootenai County Office of Emergency Management this month. Sgt. Jacob Kammers, recently wounded in action and the recipient of a Purple Heart, was there to participate in the flag raising. It was a grand day for the grand old flag... a flag that had seen war up close at the side of a hometown boy and now on the eve of Independence Day gave those of us here safe and free another reason to be grateful.
God bless America.