Members of the Veterans at the Library added three new U.S. Flags to the front fence around the Veterans and 1st Responders Memorial Park on Friday, March 25. These three U.S. flags represent the two New York Army National Guard members, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Casey Frankoski and Chief Warrant Officer 2 John Grassia, and the U.S. Border Patrol Agent Chris Luna that were killed when the UH-72 Lakota helicopter they were flying crashed near Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 8, 2024. The addition of these three U.S. Flags makes 22 U.S. flags flying for American Heroes killed in the line of duty, serving and protecting our country. Earlier in February 2024, the Veterans at the Library erected three U.S. Flags to honor three Georgia Soldiers that were killed in Jordan on January 28, 2024; Sgt. William Jerome Rivers of Carrollton, Spec. Kennedy Ladon Sanders of Waycross and Spec. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett of Savannah. All three soldiers were members of the 718th Engineer Company (U.S. Army Reserve), 926th Engineer Battalion, 926th Engineer Brigade, Fort Moore, (Benning) Georgia. They were in Jordan to support Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the U.S. and coalition mission to ensure the defeat of ISIS and were killed while more than 40 other service members were injured following an uncrewed aerial system (drone) attack at a military base near the Syrian border (Tower 22) and impacted their container housing unit. Also, on January 22, 2024, Veterans at the Library placed two U.S. Flags for Navy Seal 2nd Class Nathan Gage Ingram and 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers, U.S. Navy Seals Team 3, that drowned while climbing aboard an unflagged ship that was carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen. They were lost in the roiling high seas off the coast of Somalia. Veterans at the Library also met to erect a U.S. Flag to honor Spc. Bishop E. Evans, a Texas Army National Guardsman, who drowned April 22, 2022, while attempting to save two migrants who appeared to be drowning in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass. The Veterans at the Library originally erected 13 U.S. Flags on the front fence of the Veterans and 1st Responders Memorial Park honoring the Eleven Marines, one Navy Corpsman and one Army soldier that were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport at Abbey Gate while helping to oversee the humanitarian evacuation mission of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies on August 26, 2021. "LET US NOT FORGET"
