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Blue Water Fallen Heroes Week 9

By Kathleen Knowles

Blue Water Fallen Heroes continues to answer your question pertaining to the Banner Program honoring

If you have been following Blue Water Healthy Living, you are familiar with the Blue Water Fallen Heroes Community Banner Project. The program was conceived to recognize and honor over 550 military service members from Saint Clair County who died in service to their country from World War I to the current conflicts. These banners will include the service member’s picture, branch of service, their rank, the conflict they were involved in, and the city, town or village they resided. The banners will be displayed the week for Memorial Day and the week after in the cities and towns where the hero lived. Target date 2021.

Those of you who have not heard of the program or simply want to know more about it will now be provided with a forum in which to ask questions. We will be accepting your questions which will then be answered directly by those involved in the project.

Your questions from last week:
Q: What will be on these banners beside the picture?
A: Rank of the GI
Name
Age at the time of death
Hometown
Branch of service
Conflict (if applicable) or year of death.

Q: Why can’t someone just scan the picture themselves?
A: 99% of home scanners will scan up to 600 dpi (dots per inch). This is fine for home or office use, but when you try to enlarge a photo that has been scanned at 600 dpi up to three feet in height, it will pixelate and become cloudy. The intent is to capture every detail and nuance of the face so that a three-foot-tall image is just as sharp as the wallet-sized photo. The scanner purchased for this project will scan up to 9,600 dpi. That is not a typo. The typical size of these banners is 6′ in height. The image will be half that size.

Q: Will the families get to see the banners before they are put up?
A: The Department of Veterans Affairs is contemplating a semi-private showing prior to display that may apply to the families providing the photos. That is not a priority at this time, but something that is talked about.
Q: Could an extra banner be made so the family could keep it if they are willing to pay for it?
A: Two answers here. There is talk of a miniature image of the banner (8 1/2 by 10′ suitable for framing) that might become available. At no time are the families suggested to, encouraged to or expected to contribute to this project . . . now or ever, because they ALREADY paid.

Q: Why not display them for the entire month of May instead of just two weeks?
A: A similar question has been asked, ‘ . . . display them for the entire year’. The plan is to convey the message that Memorial Day is much more than the start of the summer or a three-day weekend. It’s about honoring and remembering the sacrifice of these brave men and women who grew up immediately but never grew old. If these banners are up for a lengthy time, they eventually go unnoticed. That plus the additional wear and tear from the wind and weather would also be an issue.

Please help us locate photos of these many sacrifices. If you know of anyone who died while in service of their country from World War I to the current conflicts, please contact us at the hotline below so that we may honor their service and sacrifice.
Our hotline is (810) 985-2007
Also:
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us? Send it to the email address below, and we will see that you get an answer. Check back to Blue Water Healthy Living for the answer to your question.
ksknowles1@gmail.com

Blue Water Healthy Living strongly encourages everyone to get involved in this worthy projects to honor those in our communities who are responsible for the very freedom we all enjoy.

Kathleen Knowles
Contributing Writer

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