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It's really a grand old flag Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell As a soldier with the U.S. Army in occupied Germany in 1945, Edward Marcisz fashioned this flag using a foot-powered sewing machine and whatever material he could find. "We showed them what the American flag looked like," he said. World War II veteran Edward Marcisz took matters into his own hands as his unit marched into Germany By PAUL FATTIG Mail Tribune Edward Marcisz felt something was missing when the U.S. Army's 102 Infantry Division approached Berlin at the end of World War II. Landing at Normandy, his unit had accomplished its mission, successfully fighting its way through France, Brussels and finally deep into Germany. "But my company didn't have an American flag," he recalled. "And I really wanted those German people to see what an American flag looked like. I was real proud of that flag. "So I started scrounging around the houses, looking for material to make an American flag," he said. With Old Glory rippling in the breeze of patriotism blowing through the nation in the wake of Sept. 11, Marcisz, now 84, proudly displays the 5-foot-long flag he fashioned more than half a century ago. "That's the flag we were fighting for," he said. "That flag means a lot to me." Born in Chicago to Polish immigrants George and Katherine Marcisz, he recalled his family's patriotic pride. "Back in Chicago, we had a great big flag - about 50 feet long," said Marcisz, who lives with his brother Frank, 82, in Medford. They came to the Rogue Valley with their parents in 1950. Their father died in 1952, their mother in 1962. A younger brother, Ted, a retired fireman who lives across town, is a Navy veteran. Both Edward and Frank are confirmed bachelors. "We were taught how to take care of a house," Frank said. "Very few men know how to even boil water. We can cook, too." "Our mother also taught us how to sew when we were kids," Edward adds. It was a skill that would come in handy when, at age 25, Edward was inducted into the Army. "I trained for the artillery but when they shipped us across, I was in the infantry," he said. It was a bloody march. Several friends were killed along the way. "I almost came back in a coffin," Edward said. "My buddy right by me, he got shot in the head. We had a couple of Germans trapped. He was trying to get them to give up and he stuck his head up a little too high. They got him. I didn't get a scratch." That was near Berlin as the war drew to a close. At the village of Remda, just outside of Berlin, Edward decided to show the Germans a sample of Old Glory. "We were bivouacked in some of the houses there," he said. "I kept looking for the material as we went along. The red and blue was real hard to find." He eventually found enough material, including the red and blue. He also found a foot-powered Singer sewing machine. "Those German ladies were surprised I could use the machine," he said, adding, "But it was just like ours. It was real easy." The flag, the first and only one he ever made, looks like it could have been made by an experienced seamstress. Even two small patches on the blue material are done with care. He has a black and white photograph of the flag being displayed in front of a building in Remda at the end of July, 1945. "We showed them what the American flag looked like," he said. Edward can't hear in his right ear and wears a hearing aid to hear in his left ear. "He lost his hearing in the war," Frank explained. "When he was shooting the 105 howitzer, he started losing it." "I went to the VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) to try to get a hearing aid, and the lady said I had to prove it (was service connected)," Edward said. "I told her, 'Well, hell, the war is over. When you got hurt back then, you didn't go running to the doctor all the time.' " He was discharged as a private first class early in 1946, leaving with his memories and his flag. "A lot of people in my company wanted that flag, " he said. "But I fought for it. And I made it." The brothers plan to donate the flag to the military museum at the Department of Veterans Affairs Domiciliary in White City. 'Patriots for Peace' share their message Don Wells acknowledges his antiwar sentiments may not be too popular in today's patriotic fervor. But that doesn't stop the Medford resident, a conscientious objector during World War II, from speaking his mind. "We are patriots for peace," he said, noting those opposed to war have a patriotic duty to speak out. "There is no reason why the military should have the corner on patriotism." Wells, 84, is one of four panelists scheduled to discuss "America at War" Monday at the Rogue Valley Unitarian Universal Fellowship, 87 Fourth St., Ashland. The two-hour program, which begins at 7 p.m., will review the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and its aftermath. Sponsors include Unitarian Universalists In Action, Peace House and the Ashland Interfaith Ministries. In addition to Wells, panelists include Wilma Oksendahl, an international development expert in Afghanistan; Caren Caldwell, pastor of the United Church of Christ; and Hal Jamison, a civil rights attorney. The public is invited to a question and answer period following the panel discussion, said organizer Wendy Harris. "The goal is to have people come together and talk about this," she said. "We want them to share their feelings and have the chance to talk to some real experts." A philosophy professor emeritus from the University of Hawaii, Wells noted that he doesn't oppose punishing those responsible for the terrorist attacks in September. But Wells, who worked in a hospital during World War II in lieu of carrying a gun, said Americans also have the duty to ask questions. He intends to address three during his presentation. "Why did they do this to us? What should we have done in response? And is what we did justifiable?" he asked. Wells, who taught a course which took a long hard look at war and morality, concludes the war in Afghanistan is not just. Most of those bombed are the innocent poor, he noted. "It's an understatement to say it's a popular war," he said. He believes that the United States should have first turned to the United Nations, then tried those responsible in an international criminal court. "We haven't done any of the diplomatic things that needed to be done," he said. "I think we would have gotten a lot of support if we had." Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.