Exactly 10 days ago I was sitting in front of a computer screen, reading the email that had gone unread for the previous week. This particular email had been forwarded by a member of the OU Amateur Radio Club from his Dad, who is one of the OK state coordinators of the Flagrun. The message explained the flagrun, gave the web address and said that he needed some Amateur Radio operators to help with the run.

I surfed the site and saw that the little runner guy was coming south at a low rate of speed. I sent a message to the OK state coordinators and surfed some more. Halfway through Captain Bert Booth's diary I realized that I had to be involved with this project.

One week, hundreds of phone calls and hundreds of emails later, Dave Kennedy, Susan Weaver, my wife Sharlene & I were sitting at a 3 hour dinner realizing that we were just hours away from heading to the Texas border to get the flag. We all assured Susan that it would work out just fine. (I don't think she believed it, all she said was "I just wanted to run").

On the way to the meeting point, an Oklahoma City radio station is talking about the FLAGRUN and a couple more folks call to volunteer their talents. At the Ardmore, OK staging area we find Tim, Bill, Angel and over a dozen others getting ready for the day. They've got hundreds of T-shirts made just for the Ardmore leg. "Boston to Ardmore to Los Angeles".

We head to the border and find a half dozen folks waving little flags. Kind of nice, but we head south to find the flag and about a 20 vehicle caravan. Susan & I jump on the RV, get a 10 minute briefing from the Texas crew and one of the crew says "We're here!". We hop out to see that the gang of 6 had turned into hundreds of people with a mobile PA system, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, pickup trucks, cars, cars and more cars.

A quick ceremony and we're off and running. I jump in the drivers seat, my home for the next 7 hours and start learning the ropes. A half mile down the road I finally realize that there's a camera crew in the vehicle and it has been taping our every move. After 5 minutes I realize that this is the start of a 295 mile parade through everytown Oklahoma. All the trials and tribulations of the past 8 days are gone.

What I see over the next couple of days I hope I'll never forget.

Thirty minutes later the flag is heading over the Red River Bridge. Adults and children are lining the route. Tim, Dennis and other runners are stopped and asked to sign autographs.

We head through open farm country and everyone stops and watches the flag. They see the caravan, but they watch the flag. The farmers stop their tractors. The horses come running to the road. The men remove their hats and the kids just run toward the flag.

Then we start to hit the towns. Thackerville has people lining the road. Marietta has a GIANT American flag suspended from a pair of Electric Company bucket trucks. We can see that flag from over a mile away. More people and a marching band. The flag's the star. Kids want to touch it. Adults want to hold it. The police stand at attention and salute. The people now are everywhere. Oncoming traffic has stopped and the people get out and clap and wave. The runners get to a point where the pace is slowing, a young girl and her brothers run in and join the pack. The girl is given the flag and she takes off ahead of the pack. The pace picks back up as the pack chases down the little girl. The smile on her face is probably still there today. Ahead to the left is a troop of Brownies all decked out in their uniforms. The guy that wanted to run 22 miles across the county is still going strong. Greenville, Overbook more people, more of the same.

A helicopter flies around the group. Channel 9 from Oklahoma City has come to show all of Oklahoma what we get to see. As we near Ardmore, the caravan grows. The running pack grows. The pair of cross country running sisters are in at least their 17th mile. The mounted Police have joined the group and lead us through the Veterans Center. The group of nearly 50 runners, stops and passes the flag to the vets who are waiting with flags and smiles. It's made their day. And mine.

As we make the turn into the Noble Stadium, Frank asks "When is the football game? What are all the cars for?" The third time that I tell him the crowd is JUST for the flag, he believes me. A couple of laps in the stadium and the crowd cheers the flag on. After almost 8 hours in the RV, I brief the next driver, Bob Weaver and roll out of the RV.

A 2 hour drive home, more emails, a short nap, pack up the truck and the phone starts ringing. The TV crew can't find the location in for the Live Remote to the CBS Morning Show. That problem solved, the sun comes up and the flag in beautiful downtown Lexington, OK. Staging coordinator Kathy Dunlop has outdone herself setting up for event. Singers, dancers, runners, Senator Cal Hobson, veterans and school kids are all assembled for another short ceremony. The flag hits the schools and Sharlene & Kathy jump in the RV for the 3 hour trip to Norman. As they leave town a farmer baling hay pulls up to the road and takes off his hat as the flag goes by.

I race back to Norman to open the staging area there. As I'm setting up, the runners arrive. The Norman Staging crew of Susan, Janice and Lauren started to process the runners. We had a runners from Norman, Moore, Enid, Muskogee and Tulsa showed up. The long distance folks were from Iowa and Michigan. The military had lots of folks show up. I watched the ROTC take the flag to the University of Oklahoma.

A quick trip up Sooner Road to Oklahoma City and I got to be part of the crowd waving and watching as the flag went by. Another neat experience.

The last event of the day for me was a ceremony at the Alfred P. Murrah National Memorial Survivor Tree. The site of the Oklahoma City Bombing. My task was to set up a Speaker System for the event. This site is very quiet and meditative, so I set up quietly. To test the speakers, I was playing a CD of "God Bless America". When I looked around there were about 30 folks singing along.

In an instant, the flag appeared and so did over 500 people paying their respects. Congressman Frank Lucas led the ceremony where Mike & Frank told the story of the flag yet another time. I can still hear Mike's words saying that we can't let this happen ever again. Unfortunately, I remember hearing those similar words on this very site in 1995 right after the Murrah building was destroyed.

I got involved to help with a little Amateur Radio work. I ended up doing significantly more than that. It took a lot more effort to watch that flag leave than it did to get it here. In less than 10 days I made many, many friends and had many, many great experiences. Ten days ago, the WTC tragedy was only in New York. Now, it's everywhere the flag has been. This flag or any flag.

I wrote this diary for a number of reasons, for myself, for my friends, but mostly because I hope that at least one of you reading this will get motivated and get involved like I did after reading Captain Bert Booth's diary 10 days ago.

I just got off the telephone with the RV and as I finish this diary, a couple of my friends are passing the flag to the next guardians. I hope they have the same experience.

Mike's words are correct, "I'm too old to do this again, we'll have to see that it doesn't".

Mark Kleine
Norman, OK

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