This year, Barnes’ father- in-law, Robert Leamon Barnes, Jr., a veteran of the Coast Guard, was honored by a cross and flag. “Everywhere you go in Georgia people know about Pembroke’s flags,” he said.īarnes, whose husband Drew is a veteran and adjutant of AL Post 164, said she got involved because of her husband’s military service, and was then asked to take over as treasurer and secretary by longtime AL Post 164 member Ernie Mitchell, long a driving force behind the flags with fellow Vietnam Veteran B.J. The Pembroke Flag Committee’s Facebook page, Pembroke Flags, is often updated with details on when such work is needed.įloyd, who recently served as a speaker at the AL Post 164 Memorial Day observance, said then the display is something the city is famous for. Funding to replace flags and crosses has occasionally been an issue, and lack of volunteers young enough to do the physical labor has also at times made keeping the flags flying a precarious proposition.Īs recently as 2022 there have been appeals for financial help, including one on WTOC which Barnes said reached viewers near and far and helped put the display on better financial footing.Ī program for the Memorial Day observance listed the main donors to the display – First Bank of Coastal Georgia, Flanders Powell Funeral Home, Canoochee EMC, Liberty Auction, Butler Tire & Lube, Carol Bacon Miller, PC, PAC TV, the city of Pembroke, Piggly Wiggly, and Savannah’s American Legion Post 135 and American Legion Post 135 Auxiliary.Īll donations are appreciated, Barnes said, and anyone who wants to come help put the display up or take it down is welcome. Still, there have been bumps in the road.ĭue to lost records, some of the older crosses no longer had anyone paying the $10 annual fee to help with upkeep. ![]() The display has grown over the years, with as many as 10 flags and crosses added yearly. Various organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have also pitched in over the years to make sure the display was standing tall. “The difference is there weren’t as many flags and crosses when I was younger.”įor years, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 164, through the work of members such as Dot Thornton, Susie Magee and Marsha Clark, were responsible for the display. “They’ve had the display as long as I can remember,” said Alex Floyd, 32, a local historian of sorts who grew up just outside Pembroke city limits. And though exactly when that first display occurred, it’s certain the flags have been flying on McEachin Square for some time. Many credit the late Bob and Virginia Quattlebaum with being “instrumental,” in getting it started. Buddy Carter - the origin of display is a bit unclear. While much of the work to put up the display and take it down is handled by the committee, which includes members of American Legion Post 164, with manpower also provided by the Pembroke Fire Department and community volunteers – including on one occasion U.S. ![]() “They can see how proud Pembroke is of our veterans.” “We wanted people driving through town and visitors to see what Pembroke’s all about,” said Amy Barnes, who serves as secretary and treasurer of the Pembroke Flag Committee, a small group of volunteers who handle the work involved in keeping the flags flying. It’ll stay up until July 11, some 200 flags and crosses in all and each representing a local veteran while turning downtown Pembroke into a sea of red, white and blue. ![]() The Pembroke Flag Committee did things a little differently this year.Īfter putting the city’s popular flags and crosses up in advance of Memorial Day in May, committee members decided rather than take them back down again until Independence Day, they’d to leave the display up through June and the July 4 holiday.
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