ARMY AVIATOR IN IRAQ FLIES FLAG MADE BY ROCKPORT YOUTH ON MISSIONS

After the paint dried on the American flag made by the students at the Odyssey After School Enrichment Program in Rockport, it was a question of what to do with it.  To Curriculum and Fitness Coordinator Sean Sullivan, whose brother is stationed in Kuwait, the answer was simple, “Get the flag to the troops in Iraq.”  She contacted the First Presbyterian Church which leases their gymnasium to the Odyssey Program and whose Secretary has a son deployed to Iraq.  As it happened, the secretary was preparing a “care package” for her son and volunteered to include it.

A few weeks later the secretary, Beverly Jacobson, received an email from her son who pilots a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter on combat medical evacuation missions.    He told her after he received the flag, he put it on his Blackhawk’s dashboard where it flew with him on 16 missions over a 2-week period.  The flag was visible as CW2  Todd Jacobson came in for a landing to pick up wounded soldiers, civilians, and enemy prisoner’s of war.   His email included two pictures of the flag – one showing it on his chopper’s dashboard and the other of Chief Jacobson and his crew holding it in front of their helicopter.

He wondered if his mother thought the Odyssey children would like their flag returned and if so, he would include a certificate prepared and signed by he and his crew stating it had flown in Iraq.  The response from the Odyssey staff was a resounding, “Yes!”

On Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 5:00 P.M. in the First Presbyterian Church gymnasium, the children, teachers and staff of Odyssey will receive their flag and Certificate.   In honor of the event, members of the Aransas Pass High School Jr. R.O.T.C. Color Guard will not only present the Colors but also in a very moving ceremony return the flag while Mrs. Jacobson reads the Certificate  which accompanied it.

The public and media are invited to attend this special event.

For more information contact

Ms. Beverly R. Jacobson,  beverlyrjacobson@yahoo.com, 361.463.6528

Or

Ms. Sean Sullivan, Odyssey After School Enrichment Program,  361.729.0373