Wall of Honor

n The Flag Store on Route 209 in Sciota is the Patriotic Room, filled with military flags dating back to the American Revolution.

In this room is the Wall of Honor, containing photos of uniformed people who served or are serving in the U.S. military.

Some are photos of those who served in World War II.

Among them: Flag Store owner Vena Ackerman’s father, U.S. Army Air Corps veteran Gilbert Arnt; father-in-law Earl Ackerman, who won the Purple Heart while serving with the U.S. Army in the Philippines; and B.F. Broome, her uncle who was killed while serving with the Army at the Battle of the Bulge.

A fourth photo is of Vena Ackerman’s brother, Kenneth Arnt, now 68, who was a U.S. Air Force mechanic stationed at an air base guarded by U.S. Marines in Vietnam.

Other photos show people not in Ackerman’s family, like U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Ronald Trimner, who’s stationed in Maryland and whose mother works at The Flag Store, and Daniel Leewright of Kunkletown, serving with the Marines in Afghanistan.

The wall also contains two U.S. flags the store provided the military.

One flag was flown in 2009 during the National Military Academy of Afghanistan’s first class graduation ceremony in Kabul, Ackerman said. The other was one of the flags flown later that year over the northern

Arabian Sea by the Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 143, also known as the “Pukin’ Dogs.”

Both flags were later returned to the store.

“The Wall of Honor is three weeks old,” said Ackerman of Sciota, a 40-year Monroe County resident whose husband served with the Marines in Vietnam. “With Flag Day coming up (today), I wanted to do something here to honor those who’ve served our country in both war and peacetime, and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. So, I got my own family pictures together, and asked customers who served or have family members who served if they’d like to contribute pictures.”

The Wall of Honor will be unveiled Saturday, the day after Flag Day.

“We’re inviting veterans, current military personnel and their families, whether they live in or out of the area, to come and add pictures,” Ackerman said. “The pictures can be of any size and can be of people who served as far back as the Civil War. I plan to make more room on the wall to accommodate additional pictures.

“We also invite the public in general to come on Saturday or any day and just reflect in honor of those who’ve served and are currently serving,” she said.

Also invited to Saturday’s unveiling are the U.S. Submarine Veterans’ Pocono base.

Members plan to bring a model replica of the USS Barb SS 220, a submarine whose crew is credited with sinking 17 enemy vessels, said Ackerman.

In addition, members of the Brodheadsville-based Veterans Assisted Living Out Reach (VALOR) Foundation, which provides health care and shelter to veterans unable to afford either, plan to attend.

Ackerman’s other efforts to honor veterans include supporting the creation of a Washington, D.C., memorial remembering Vietnam veterans affected by Agent Orange, a carcinogenic herbicide and defoliant used during the war. The store has made 500 small black flags with orange lettering to place at the memorial.

“We have so many unsung heroes who don’t seek praise, but deserve it for their service to our country,” said Ackerman, who was attending high school in Pottstown when her brother was in Vietnam in 1967. “I’m thankful every day for what they’ve done.”