MILWAUKEE — John Henschel knows what it means to serve his country. 

He served in the U.S. Navy for four years, from 1985 until 1989. 

What You Need to Know

  • The Milwaukee War Memorial Center started a “Field of Flags” in 2020 to honor fallen U.S. soldiers

  • The event was planned for Memorial Day 2020, but was pushed to September because of COVID-19

  • In 2020, the flags represented fallen Milwaukee Armed Service members from World War II

  • This year, each of the 7,056 flags represents a military member who has died since September 11, 2001

On Saturday, he continued to help serve, by volunteering his time to help honor his fallen brothers and sisters who have died in the last 20 years. 

"I’m alignment, so my job is to get these flags in proper, straight, up and down, and work with my big brother here to get the board in and keep the flags going,” Henschel said of his duties Saturday morning. 

He was one of hundreds of volunteers at Veterans Park Saturday who worked to place 7,056 flags in the ground ahead of Memorial Day.  

Each flag represents each armed service member who has died serving our country since the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. 

Emily King has two brothers who have served in Afghanistan since those attacks. She said helping to put the flags up was a no-brainer. 

“My brothers are in the military and I don’t want anybody to ever forget anybody who’s been killed in action while serving for our country,” King said. 

It’s the second year for this “Fields of Flags” event with the War Memorial Center. 

Last year, it was delayed until September because of COVID-19. The flags last year honored those from Milwaukee who died in World War II. 

The idea for the Field of Flags came from something similar that happens in Boston, that the president of the War Memorial  Center got to see with his wife. 

“They do this going all the way back to the Revolutionary War. They place 33,000 flags in the Boston Commons,” said Dan Buttery, president and CEO of the War Memorial Center. "We observed that, it was powerful, it took our breath away, and we wanted to bring that to Wisconsin. We wanted to bring that to Milwaukee.”

Buttery wants to continue this event every Memorial Day to honor the fallen from different wars every year. 

After seeing the number of people who wanted to help place flags this year, Henshel believes this Field of Flags can be a remarkable Memorial Day event in Milwaukee. 

“The turnout today? Unbelievable, incredible,” Henshel said. "It just tells me there is a great support for this country, a great support for our freedom, and everything  that we’re allowed to have as being Americans.”

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You can see the Field of Flags until Tuesday.