(The following story by Obaid Khawaja appeared on the Fort Dodge Messenger website on April 19.)
EAGLE GROVE, Iowa — Bruce Ferguson is a man on a mission.
For more than five years, the Union Pacific Railroad employee has been raising American flags to symbolize his support for the men and women involved in the war effort and is now hoping to send flags, along with messages of support, to troops abroad.
“We’ve got a lot of kids in uniform (at Union Pacific),” said Ferguson, a mechanic in charge. “It’s a way for us to say ‘thank you.”’
On Wednesday, a Marine Corps flag was packaged with a green ledger book at the Union Pacific Railroad station in Eagle Grove. The flag will travel around the country with Union Pacific train crews who will pass it to employees at other stations.
Each crew will add their own comments for the troops and pass it on until April 2008 or until the book is filled.
Next week, the Marine Corps flag will be taken to Mankato, Minn., and exchanged with an Army flag, which will be brought to Eagle Grove before being taken to Des Moines and the rest of the country.
Ferguson first got the idea after being approached by Ralph Schiring, a lifelong railroad employee who works at the Union Pacific headquarters in Omaha, Neb., who asked him to come up with something for the troops.
Darrin Deppin, who worked with Ferguson and was formerly in the Marine Corps, turned out to be the inspiration behind the project. In his honor, Ferguson decided to start the project by sending the Marine Corps flag first. He hopes to have flags representing all branches of the military circulating and, around May 2008, they will be sent to the Union Pacific headquarters in Omaha.
John Chiumento, manager of yard operations at the Eagle Grove station, said Ferguson approached him and George Zettles, manager of train operations, to ask for their help.
“He came up with a plan for putting the flag on something and … transporting it around our system,” said Chiumento. “To me, it (seemed) like something that just about anyone would support.”
In 2006, Union Pacific Railroad, which operates under the Union Pacific Corporation, was named by G.I. Jobs magazine as the nation’s top “military-friendly” employer for the second consecutive year. Ferguson said the company continues to pay wages for employees called to duty, though it isn’t required to.