Edited by Dan McDermott
Route 11 News
WOODSTOCK — Local men and women who served in the U.S. military will soon be honored along the streets of Woodstock as a long-planned veterans banner program finally becomes a reality.
The Town of Woodstock Veterans Banner Program will begin with about 58 banner locations honoring veterans with ties to the community, according to Ken Moneagle of AMVETS Post 11. Interest has already exceeded the available locations, creating a waiting list that stretches roughly two years.
For Moneagle, who helped shepherd the project through years of discussion, the response has been gratifying.
“It’s taken off,” Moneagle said. “It’s just an amazing thing.”
The banners feature a photograph of each veteran in uniform, along with the veteran’s name and branch of service.
Among the first group is a banner honoring Samuel G. Clark, an Army private who served for two years during World War I. Clark was a longtime Woodstock resident and business owner and also served as a former Shenandoah County treasurer, according to the application submitted for his banner.
Clark’s century-old military portrait makes his banner a particularly striking example of what organizers hope the program will accomplish: putting faces — some familiar, some from generations past — to Woodstock’s military history.
The program was a long time coming.
Moneagle said efforts to establish a veterans banner program in Woodstock date back more than a decade. Gary Hoover, a longtime American Legion member who later became a charter member of Woodstock’s AMVETS post, had worked on the idea through the Legion. Hoover has since died.
After AMVETS was established in Woodstock, town officials brought representatives of the two veterans organizations together. Moneagle represented AMVETS and Hoover represented Woodstock American Legion Post 199 on a larger committee charged with working out the program.
Moneagle said cooperation between the veterans organizations was important.
“Whatever differences we have, you need to set aside,” he said. “We’re veterans. We are here for us and the community.”
The resulting program is administered by AMVETS Post 11. Families or other applicants pay $81.50 for a banner, while the Town of Woodstock provides the mounting brackets, installs the banners and maintains the hardware.
The banners will be displayed on a two-year rotation and returned to the applicants afterward. Rather than remaining outdoors continuously, they are expected to be displayed several times during the year around occasions honoring veterans, then removed and stored between display periods. Moneagle said that approach should help preserve the banners and keep them looking fresh.
The response has been stronger than organizers anticipated. Moneagle said the initial locations have already filled, producing a waiting list of roughly two years. Organizers are now exploring whether additional poles can be used on side streets so more veterans can be honored sooner.
“The need is here, and the community has showed that the need is here,” Moneagle said.
Banners for veterans on the waiting list can be produced before their scheduled display period, allowing families to keep and display them at home until their turn arrives.
Mike Hanna, an officer of AMVETS Post 11, is taking over much of the ongoing administration of the banner program from Moneagle.
The program gives preference to veterans with a connection to Woodstock and to those who do not already have banners displayed in surrounding communities. Moneagle said the restrictions are intended to make sure the limited number of locations remain available to veterans with local ties.
Moneagle, originally from Arkansas, came to the region through his work with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He previously led an American Legion post in Martinsburg, West Virginia, for nine years and later Woodstock American Legion Post 199 for several years. When AMVETS approached him about establishing a post in Woodstock, he agreed and helped launch AMVETS Post 11.
Now the organization is administering a project intended to make Woodstock’s military history visible throughout the community — not simply as a collection of names, but as individual people and faces.
At the end of each veteran’s two-year rotation, the banner will be returned to the family.
And, as Moneagle put it, they will know that their veteran’s banner “was flown” over Woodstock.
Applications for the Veterans Banner Program are available through AMVETS Post 11, 492 N. Main St., Woodstock. The application fee is $81.50. For more information, call 540-233-0511 or email amvetsva11@gmail.com.
