Retiring the military flags
You know winter is not too far off when Alan Joslin and his comrades from the local American Legion Post #13 team up with the Town of Putnam to take down the flags on the Memorial Bridge on Rt. 44.
The flags were posted back in early May and they were retired on Nov 13. Willie Bousquet and Gene Palazzo from the Town of Putnam had a bucket truck to assist and Jim Crabtree was in the bucket. The tasks involved removing 16 flags and steel flag poles (about 10-feet long) from their cast iron holsters, rolling up the flags, and placing them in a truck for transport to a local storage facility. It usually takes about 30-45 minutes to do the job.
Post #13 members who volunteered included Alan Joslin, Dave Gilbert, Garry Brown, Larry Christy, and Victor Kratz. Joslin said: “We usually replace each flag once every two years. The contant exposure to the ultraviolet rays from the sun causes the colors to fade. The flags are purchased by the American Legion, and we usually spend about $650 dollars a year on new flags.”
The Memorial Bridge is a great source of pride for Putnam’s veterans. It was built in 1938 and restored in 2015. In addition to the flags, each side of the bridge has three bronze plaques honoring Putnam’s WWI veterans. The arched bridge is very ornate. Each concrete siding is acentuated with a couple of concrete pediments topped off with an obelisk bearing a streetlamp. At the center are three raised concrete tablets bearing the bronze plaques. The center tablet is topped off with a cast concrete eyebrow. The bridge was damaged during the Flood of 1955, and one of the bronze plaques went missing, but it was recently found and returned to to the town of Putnam. According to Putnam Mayor Barney Seney, “We would like to see if the plaque can restored and reinstalled. I am not sure if that is possible – but we are looking into it.”
Linda Lemmon photos
The town's Jim Crabtree helps the American Legion post members retire the flags from the bridge.
From left: Alan Joslin, Dave Gilbert, Garry Brown, Larry Christy, and Willie Bousquet
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