Field Of Flags Honors Northbrook Service Members
NORTHBROOK, Ill. (WBBM) -- Hundreds of flags are flying on the Village Green in north suburban Northbrook this Memorial Day weekend to honor the community's service personnel and locals who have died in the service of their country.
There are 1,901 flags, a number that is significant because 1901 was the year Northbrook was incorporated. Hundreds of the flags have cards attached, honoring service personnel past and present, including the 43 Northbrook residents who have died on active duty, from the Civil War to Vietnam.
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Others who are honored served in virtually all of the nation's wars, dating from the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to the American Revolution.
"Each flag is a story in itself," said George W. Benjamin American Legion Post Commander Peter Stockslager.
He is personally honored by one of the flags and has sponsored several other flags for fellow Vietnam veterans who died fighting.
Adults visiting the park, upon seeing the rows of flags, pause and move from flag to flag reverently. Children, on the other hand, run squealing and laughing through the flags as if they were a giant maze.
And that's OK to one planner.
"I love watching the little kids run through them," said Northbrook Historical Society President Judy Hughes, who brought the concept to the Northbrook Park District officials and has overseen the celebration. "They're reaching up and touching the flags, and I think that they will remember this all their lives."
Prayer services are being offered each evening at sunset through Monday. Musical entertainment will be provided in the Village Green gazebo Saturday and Sunday, including patriotic music, Big Band-era favorites sung by the Legacy Girls, the Palatine Concert Band, the Northbrook Symphony brass quintet and the Great Lakes Naval Band, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Hughes said Northbrook is not pioneering the concept. She said it originated in Sandy, Utah, and has been promoted by the Healing Fields Foundation. But even without the music, just the breeze and the sound of an occasional Metra train to break the silence, Hughes and Stockslager said the flags make a definitive statement.
"This is the story of our country from its founding," Hughes said.
Asked what Northbrook could do in future years to top this display, Stockslager said quietly, "You don't."
