My husband Phil served in WW II. He was stationed in Inchon City, Korea, having been trained in Camp Fannon, Texas along with many other young men to replace those who had been stationed there since 1942.

He told me, "We were so young (he was 17) and dumb that for a time we were actually mad at Pres. Truman for dropping the bomb! We wanted to fight the enemy ourselves! It didn't take too long though before we figured out that he had very likely saved our lives."

Phil was the youngest WW II member of our local (Sidney, IA) American Legion Post and was very proud to participate in all of their activities.

Phil served as Commander on the Post, County, and District American Legion level and as the Iowa Department Sergeant-at-Arms. He also served on the national level as a member of the National Resolution and Assignment Committee for 20 years.

While he loved all of his work with the American Legion, he was the proudest of having served for over 25 years as Sergeant-at-Arms of the post firing squad that honored his comrades at their military funerals.

Following our marriage in 1949, I joined the Sidney American Legion Auxiliary on Phil's service record and served as President of the Unit, County, District and then as President of the Iowa Department of the American Legion Auxiliary in 1996-97. I continued by serving on eight National Auxiliary Committees and now continue to serve and promote patriotism on the local level.

We were the first family in the town of Sidney to fly a flag 24/7 in front of our home. When we moved to the country in 1967 Phil made a flag pole so we could continue the tradition. For over 30 years when people were given directions to our home, they were told to look for the house with the flag flying in the front yard.

Sadly, Phil passed away in July of 2000 and the flag pole I purchased from you recently was a much needed replacement to enable me to be able to continue our family's long standing tradition of showing our patriotism by flying our flag 24/7.

Thank you for your interest in promoting veterans.

- Rosie H.

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