FLAGS FOR THE FALLEN

PALMER — It’s a sunny Friday afternoon in Palmer. A whine of a power drill and the whrrr of a golf cart drone out the friendly chatter of neighbors. But this isn’t fall home project with neighbor helping neighbor, or a social event. It is what will be a silent and powerful tribute on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

More than 500 flags stand at attention along the manicured lawns of Mountain Rose Estates in Palmer today. The patriotic display is a tribute to the nation and those who have served it, put there by those who have sacrificed, their neighbors and friends.

It was three years ago this weekend that Jo Childs told her next-door neighbors on Rugosa Circle she had an idea. She picked up a box of 144 14-by-18-inch American flags because she and her husband, Charlie, wanted to show their support on the anniversary of 9-11 for those serving in the military, including their sons.

Neighbors Bill and Sue Moore and Joe and Maryann Lisenby split the cost of the case of flags with the Childses, and the three couples stuck the flags into the lawns along the block-and-half-long street in the 55-and-older active adult community, Maryann Lisenby recalled.

Neighbors on other streets liked the idea, too, so when Memorial Day 2008 rolled around, the Childses got enough flags to circle the neighborhood with red, white and blue. Each Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Sept. 11 since, members of the Mountain Rose community help put up and take down the flags.

“Each time we put them up, it’s a different group of residents,” Lisenby said. “Monday, we’ll take the flags down. That might be another group.

“It’s a community event,” explained Lisenby, who is in charge of emailing the reminders each occasion. “Each of us does their part.”

There are 67 houses in the subdivision, and Lisenby said everyone is included. “Even if it is just to enjoy looking at them.”

On Friday, as the small group of flag inserters moved from street to street, their numbers waxed and waned. They started on Rugosa Circle and turned on to Sitka Rose, where other neighbors joined in.

“Someone from every street came out to help us,” Lisenby said on Saturday. “It’s a real community thing.”

Some residents’ grandchildren come and help. Men bring their power drills to make holes in the soil for the flags. The local American Legion post donated two flag inserters like those used at the cemeteries so that those who don’t use power tools can help.

Lisenby said some of the neighborhood women will bundle the flags in twelves with rubber bands when they are taken down on Monday; Charlie Childs repairs and stores the flags.

This year’s 9-11 flag placement was particularly poignant for Childs. He and his wife started the effort in part to honor their grandson, Daniel Woodcock of Glennallen, who was killed in Iraq, as well as their sons serving in the military: Ross Childs, a special operations soldier who recently retired, and Dustin Woodcock, who is serving in the 82nd Airborne Division.

This year marks the anniversary of the last time Jo helped put the flags around the neighborhood. Jo died in January.

Charlie Childs, an Army veteran of the Korean War, sees their effort to honor America and its warriors as going beyond the idea his late wife shared with next-door neighbors.

“It’s taken on a life of its own,” he said. “It’s just something that’s kind of taken off.”

It’s also made an impact beyond the semi-circular subdivision off Chugach Avenue, near Matanuska Telephone Association’s offices. Lizenby said MTA employees walk through the subdivision on their lunch break to admire the flags; drivers stop to ask about the display.

“We get a lot of traffic,” she said.

Childs said many veterans stop to let the neighbors know they appreciate the display.

Bill Moore, one of the original six flag inserters, is a 20-year veteran of the Air Force. He enlisted during the Korean War.

“I do it in memory of those who died who I fought with when I was over there,” Moore said. “We have an obligation to member.”

Yvonne Marty of Palmer is among those who appreciate the gesture. Marty said true patriotic efforts like the one at Mountain Rose Estates are often obscured by politics.

Marty said patriotism isn’t about supporting or not supporting a war or who is in power; it’s about being an American, and grateful for that and those who protect those freedoms. She sees that in the 540 flags that ring the Palmer subdivision.

“It’s refreshing to see that,” she said.