Flag Ceremony Honors All Military Branches

Nine Civil Air Patrol cadets in uniform marched in precision to raise flags Saturday at a special ceremony near Warbird Alley that honored all six branches of the military.

This is about the fifth year the flag-raising ceremony has been conducted, according to Warbirds Chair Bill Fischer.

The group posted colors for all branches of the military — Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard — and then posted the American flag in the center, with the POW flag beneath. Each flag was raised against blue skies as the military branch’s official song was played amidst the whir of engines taxiing nearby.

Major Brent Snyder said EAA officials asked CAP to post the flags, and all cadettes doing the detail had attended EAA AirVenture Oshkosh in the past and some had taken part in the flag ceremony as well. The majority of the nine were assigned to the Alpha unit, while the remaining were from the executive staff and public information office.

Cadette Commander Dylan German, of Houston, Texas, said the Alpha unit has the flexibility to do special assignments on the AirVenture grounds, and can be ready to deploy within five minutes.

The group practiced Friday and early Saturday before the official ceremony, but after years in the CAP doing drilling ceremonies, they weren’t nervous and were confident in their skills, German said.

The flags will stay up throughout the remainder of AirVenture.