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THE FUNERAL FLAG MAN IS FINALLY FOUND -- "My first

reason for being there is that kid in the box. My second

reason is to empower these other people who should

be standing there with a flag like me."

 

 

Story here... http://unionleader.com/article.aspx?
headline=Funeral+flag+man+FOUND&articl
eId=f25d748b-0a29-4fc4-bce4-3a4c273daa70

Story below:

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Funeral flag man FOUND

By SHAWNE K. WICKHAM
New Hampshire Sunday News Staff

Hampstead – Monika McGillicuddy got to meet her hero last week and, true to form, he brought her an American flag.

Frank Downs Jr. of Wilmington, Mass., a former Marine, was the man who held aloft a large American flag and stared down a trio of Kansas protesters who came to town for the April 18 funeral of Army Capt. Jonathan Grassbaugh.

"My first reason for being there is that kid in the box," Downs told the Sunday News. "My second reason is to empower these other people who should be standing there with a flag like me."

And that's exactly what he did.

Grassbaugh's funeral was held at a church just up the street from McGillicuddy's real estate office, and she was horrified by the "vile" words coming from the three protesters who stood on the corner, McGillicuddy told the New Hampshire Sunday News.

But, as chronicled in last week's Sunday News, and in her own blog, McGillicuddy's faith was restored by the man with a large flag who defiantly stood before the protesters, gathering a small crowd.

She never got a chance to thank him or find out his name.

He left her a yellow rose, he explained, "Just to say, 'I still believe that 99.9 percent of people are good -- and they are. Don't let these people rock your world and your belief in humanity.'"

On Friday afternoon, they met at last, two halves of a story that has inspired folks not just across New Hampshire, but far beyond. Joined by their respective spouses, they arranged to meet at McGillicuddy's office, where they exchanged a warm hug.

Then Downs, a big man with a bigger smile, presented McGillicuddy with a small American flag, looking suddenly shy.

"You have a sweet man here," McGillicuddy told Downs' wife, Pamela. "He's been a hero for so many people."

Indeed, McGillicuddy has had e-mails and postings on her blog from dozens of strangers.

One of her favorites was an email from Airman First Class Scott Desaulniers, a Manchester native currently stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany who keeps up with news from home by reading the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News on-line.

"I'm sure like many Americans, I would like to shake the hand of that man who so proudly held our colors," Desaulniers wrote.

Another soldier emailed McGillicuddy to say that the story, and her blog, had boosted the morale of the troops.

McGillicuddy wiped away tears as the emotions of that day hit her anew Friday, the hatred she felt from the protesters she confronted and, even more powerful, the hope that Downs and his flag inspired. "When you stood there," she told him, "You were bigger than life."

Some time ago, Downs started attending the funerals of New England service members who had made the ultimate sacrifice. One of the most painful was for the son of Downs' best high school friend, killed in Iraq last month. Downs carries a memorial card for his friend's boy, PFC John Francis Landry, Jr., with him at all times.

The large flag he carries with him to these "missions," a gift from a friend who serves in the Navy, once flew over the USS Constitution.

The funeral of Capt. Jonathan Grassbaugh in Hampstead was Downs' first encounter with members of the organization that calls itself Westboro Baptist Church. Using extreme language and Biblical references, the group claims a variety of events, including the Sept. 11 attacks, the deaths of American soldiers and, most recently, the Virginia Tech shootings, are God's punishment for America's tolerance for homosexuality.

►Patriotism prevails over protest

Downs, who served in the Marine Corps from 1977 to 1981, recently joined the Massachusetts chapter of the Patriot Guard Riders, a coalition of motorcycle and veterans organizations that formed in direct response to the Kansas group. PGR members attend military funerals to honor the troops and support their families.

Patriot Guard Riders from New Hampshire and other states showed up in force for Capt. Grassbaugh's funeral. Bearing flags, they passed silently by the Westboro protesters without acknowledging them, members told the Sunday News previously. They headed for St. Anne Catholic Church, up the hill and out of sight from the Kansas trio, to honor the young Army Ranger.

When Downs arrived in town, a Hampstead police officer told him the other Patriot Guard Riders had moved on to the church. That's when Downs decided to make his stand on the corner.

"That Captain Grassbaugh, I guarantee you he wanted somebody down there holding a flag so that everybody going by there saw there were more people behind me and my flag than there were behind those three people and their signs," he said.

He understands why the Guard members moved on to the church. "The Patriot Guard's motto is to stand for those who stood for us. Their mission statement is to shield the family from uninvited guests," he explained. "So if the uninvited guests are not going to have the opportunity to be visible by the family, they're not going to even bother with them. They're going to honor the dead."

Had the protesters been closer to the funeral, he knows the Guard would have formed a wall to block the family's view of their signs and voices, as they have at other military funerals, Downs said.

But he felt someone had to face them down. And he wasn't alone.

At a nearby country store, Downs noticed a group of local residents watching the protesters "with disgust."

"You're thinking about it, do something," he challenged them. They joined him on the corner with his flag.

Several students from Endicott College who had come for the funeral also stood with them. "I've got faith in your generation," he told the young men.

"I'm going to be an old man and these guys are the ones we're going to have to count on to wave the flag," he said.

As soon as the protesters left the corner, their permit expired, Downs moved quickly to the fire station up the street, where he knew the Grassbaugh family would pass after the funeral. "What else can you do for people? Let them see a total stranger standing there with a flag."

Downs has two boys of his own, aged 19 and 21. "It makes it hurt even more when somebody else is burying theirs," he said.

Both sons have flag tattoos and inherited the family's patriotic spirit. But their Marine Corps dad has forbidden them from joining the military until they've finished college.

"I don't want to be responsible for depriving them of this feeling that you get after being a Marine or any service member. But I just didn't want Bush to get them," Downs said.

"When they're done with their college, if they still feel the call, I don't blame them. I don't want them to miss this patriotic feeling I have in my heart."

Downs said he gets his patriotism from his mom, Elizabeth Downs. She and his dad live next door to him in Wilmington.

Mrs. Downs says she was proud, if not at all surprised, to learn what her son did that day for the young Army captain and his family.

"He's patriotic down to the bottom of his shoes," she said in a telephone interview. "It started the day he was born" -- which just happened to be Veterans Day, in 1958.

Downs said he never expected so much response to his quiet act of patriotism. "I've got so many people thinking the way I do," he said. "That's really all it was about."

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Larry Scott  --