History

The white flags as a memorial for U.S. military killed in Iraq began in September 2005 when a handful of people in The Mad River Valley in Central Vermont (Warren, Waitsfield, Fayston, Moretown, Duxbury) began discussing the impact of the U.S. war in Iraq.

Our small group of people was looking for a way to graphically represent the cumulative impact of each soldier’s death and all the soldiers’ deaths. We met and exchanged ideas. People discussed several ‘fields of flags’ that had been seen, one in Maine, one in California. The idea of a simple, geometric, visually striking field of flags seemed respectful, visually striking and also somber. The white flags presented an effect visually akin to Flanders Field, or Arlington National Cemetery.

Four hundred of the flags were installed for test purposes around a town-owned pond in Waitsfield and the visual impact was impressive.

We proceeded with plans to install the flags at a peace rally on the lawn of the Vermont State House in Montpelier in October 2005. We found and purchased 2000 small white flags on thin metal posts (see links section for flag vendors).

We went to the State House prepared to mark off a grid and insert 1910 flags and, two more soldiers were lost as we were installing the flags. For that first installation in Montpelier, each flag representing a fallen Vermont soldier included a piece of paper listing that soldier’s name, rank, age, date of death and hometown. The family of one fallen soldier asked to take the flag and piece of paper representing their son home with them. Another woman, the Aunt of a soldier who had been listed as a New Yorker, made an exact replica of our papers and asked if she could put it with a flag.

A week after that peace rally, several Mad River Valley landowners were approached and asked if the flags could be installed on open land. We never thought about the length of time for this as being endless.

Here, the Yestermorrow Design/Build School said yes and the flags were re-installed. Initially, at this large open field in Waitsfield, there were several American flags, some signs, flowers as well other signs. Ultimately and over time all of those ornaments have fallen away and there is a simple painted sign that reads ‘American Military Killed in Iraq’ with the number of fallen soldiers changing every couple of days.

Sometimes, passersby have stopped and left notes, others have left flags. Many simply stop. Responsibility for our memorial is shared among a half a dozen people who make sure the number of fallen soldiers is updated and who re-install the flags several times a year after they are pulled out so the field can be mowed.

As time passed, this memorial has gotten distilled down to its essence, just a simple field of flags and the ever-changing numbers. Vermont teachers have brought their classes to visit it. The re-installation has been filmed by public access television. Other local, national and international media have reported on the memorial.

In July 2006, at the suggestion of a local man, portable floats of flags were created and carried in an enormously popular and well attended Fourth of July parade. The floats, 20ft long and heavy, each bore 500+ flags. As the bearers walked slowly through the streets of the small village where the parade takes place, the crowd quieted and many stood. People in the crowd came forward to help carry the floats as the processional moved through the narrow streets of one small town in Vermont.

In October 2007, an installation of the flags was put up on the State House lawn in Montpelier again, for a peace rally. The visual impact of row upon row of flags never fails to make an impact on those who see it, but also on those who install the flags. It’s hard to forget, as each flag is shoved into the earth, that it represents a lost soldier and a devastated family.

For this group, the flags graphically represent the human costs of this war and they allow others to see that impact as well, regardless of peoples’ political positions on the war. Members of our group and this community, a ski resort town with many, many tourists, see that field every day and see those numbers climbing. We all see the field in the morning light and at sunset and when the grass is green, brown, covered with leaves and when the flags are buried in snow and then when they begin to emerge. The impact, thus far, has not diminished.