TEC supports Field of Flags

McGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. -- Service members from The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center help a West Knoxville church set up the Field of Flags, Feb. 12. The Field of Flags exhibit honors the sacrifice of U.S. service members who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Kurt Skoglund/Released)

TEC supports Field of Flags

Published March 12, 2010
By Master Sgt. Mavi Smith
The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center

McGHEE TYSON AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Tenn. -- Service members from The I.G. Brown Air National Guard Training and Education Center helped a West Knoxville church set up an exhibit to honor the sacrifice of U.S. service members who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Feb. 12.

Enlisted professional military education instructors, Master Sgts. Keith Cavanaugh, David Hixenbaugh, Veronica Ross, and Tech. Sgts. Paul Evans, Jeffrey Glawe, Byron Hayes, Don Pierson and William Smith, helped fill a field at Parkway Presbyterian Church on Sanctuary Lane with more than 5,300 American flags to commemorate the life of each fallen service member.

The Field of Flags began in 2005, at the Somers Congregational Church in Somers, Conn., when the church's memorial garden committee created a display of 2,231 American flags, one for each U.S. casualty at the time.

Today, the Field of Flags has been seen at more than 30 churches in Connecticut, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Maine, Delaware, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.