Old Glory gets starspangled repairs
Oak Creek’s Eder Flag repairs flag damaged in Afghanistan
More than 60 Eder Flag Manufacturing Co. workers lined up on both sides of a really long table this week, their hands tenderly holding red, white and blue fabric.
The 30-by-60-foot American flag in their hands had flown at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. It had been carried on board rescue helicopters flown by the 238th General Support Aviation Brigade.
It had even dangled in a rucksack from the feet of an Air Force pararescue member during a training jump.
Purchased for $1,300 by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Shawn P. Miller, a CH-47 helicopter pilot, the flag was damaged in May at Bagram.
Unsure what to do, Miller researched flag repairs and learned the company that made the flag also fixes them. Miller reached out to Eder, and the folks in Oak Creek said they would be happy to restore the flag to its former glory.
Since the manufacturer only sells its products to retailers, it’s rare that employees know what happens to one of their flags. But Miller emailed them photos of the flag on display at the large American military installation in Afghanistan.
“We never know where they’re going to end up. This gave us a special feeling,” said sewing manager Radica Markovic.
All flags are special to those who fly them, wear them on uniforms, carry them or accept them folded by honor guards at funerals.
So it is with the flag that Miller purchased for his unit: B Company, 2nd Battalion, 238th General Support Aviation Brigade. It’s a National Guard unit formed out of Illinois and South Carolina
that flew personnel recovery operations during a nine-month deployment that ended last week. In other words, they pick up people who are isolated somewhere and need to get out.
Miller bought the flag because of the significance of his unit’s deployment, believed to be the first time an Army aviation unit has flown U.S. Air Force pararescue personnel in a war zone, he said.
“We were looking for a large flag that would best represent what we felt would be of the historical nature of what we were doing,” Miller said in a phone interview this week, shortly after returning to the U.S.
The flag was displayed from two cranes as a backdrop for photos and ceremonies during training and deployment in addition to traveling on helicopters carefully folded in a vacuumsealed bag as a good luck talisman.
During an awards ceremony on May 5 a storm cell passed to the north of Bagram Airfield and high winds quickly moved in, lifted the flag and tore one of the white stripes.
Miller, who lives in South Carolina, said normally the flag would be retired once the unit returned home from Afghanistan but because of the historical significance of the deployment it will be used for public ceremonies.
Last month the flag arrived at Eder’s facility on Rawson Avenue in Oak Creek.
This repair was a bit unusual — usually flags get frayed at one end but to replace a very large white stripe is out of the norm, said Markovic.
A seam ripper tool was used to remove the 291⁄2-inch-by-41-foot white stripe attached to the blue field of the flag and a new piece of cloth was cut. Floresha Mehmetllari, a native of Albania who has worked at Eder for a decade, spent 45 minutes stitching the stripe back on the flag using a Juki double needle lockstitch sewing machine.
Eder employees also added stabilizing stitching and more rope and thimbles for reinforcement when it’s displayed and attached at all four corners, said product manager Nick Zorzi, who has worked at Eder 23 years.
“Not a lot of manufacturers still do repairs, but we do. That’s because flags are expensive. There’s usually emotional ties to that cloth and a lot of history,” said Chief Operating Officer Jodi Goglio.
“We work repairs into our production (schedule) as best as we can because we know there are memories to be made.”
Founded in 1887 in Milwaukee by seven brothers making felt pennants, sacks, toy dolls and pillows, Eder began making flags during the 1930s.
The company moved to Oak Creek in 1979 and now the workforce of 220 makes thousands of U.S., state, foreign and military flags as well as flag poles, Goglio said.
It’s now the No. 1 flag and flagpole manufacturer in the United States, and two years ago became employeeowned.
Many of the employees are immigrants; half a dozen languages are spoken on the factory floors — Spanish, Macedonian, Burmese, Arabic and Albanian.
Markovic is a Serbian immigrant who couldn’t speak English when she began working at Eder 25 years ago. She steadily worked her way up to become a supervisor.
“Now I’m living the American dream,” Markovic said.
“We respect each other, we respect everyone’s background. We celebrate all of the holidays. I like to call it the United Nations,” said Markovic. “It doesn’t matter where we come from, here we are all diverse and we’re all the same.”
This week it was time to pack up B Company’s flag and send it back to a grateful and appreciative group of soldiers. Miller had also requested the return of the damaged white stripe.
Workers filed into one of the sewing rooms from throughout the factory and lined up around a long table; one woman wore a “Proud Navy Mom” T-shirt, others were clad in headscarves.
They held onto the flag as Milinko Trisc shot compressed air to clean it and Stana Maric cut small threads with scissors. Both are from Bosnia.
They smiled as they folded the flag with great care, passing the cloth from hand to hand. After Markovic tied the folded bundle with a white cord, she turned to her colleagues and said, “Guys, you did a good job.”
Workers clapped and returned to their sewing machines.