It Took 9 Years For a Special Flag Sold for $5 at a Flea Market To Make Its Way Home to a Marine Mom

It Took 9 Years For a Special Flag Sold for $5 at a Flea Market To Make Its Way Home to a Marine Mom

By Jennifer Van Laar 2 days ago

A Texas couple made a remarkable find during a recent visit to a flea market. Lanie Mae and Wally Brown were looking through a stack of used flags, when one of them caught their eye. As reported by Yahoo News:

“I was shocked to see dedications from Marines all over this flag to a lance corporal named ‘Fred,’” Lanie Mae writes in a Facebook message.

“While scouring the many heartfelt messages to this young man, simultaneously we saw ‘RIP Fred’ and again, simultaneously we said, ‘we have to get this flag to his mama.’”

The shop owner usually gets up to $30 per used flag, but sold this flag to the Browns for $5 since it had writing all over it.
Lanie Mae Brown did some research online, and learned that ‘Fred’ was Fred Maciel, who was killed on January 26, 2005, in a helicopter crash in Fallujah. Then she tracked Fred’s mother down through Facebook.

His mother, Patsy Maciel, received the burial flag that draped his casket nine years ago. But it wasn’t until the Browns tracked her down…that she learned a second flag existed.

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The tribute flag bears the final expressions from Marines in his unit.

Patsy Maciel responded to the Browns reaching out to her about the flag:

“It sounds crazy, but that is a piece of my son coming back to me and I love them for that. I don’t have my son, but at least I have this.”

The Browns will be meeting with Patsy Maciel to give her the flag bearing her son’s name, so she can take this proud tribute to his sacrifice home.