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Family of fallen Marine reunited with memorial flag found at flea market

"I never knew it existed and here is this flag, in a flea market over two hours away from me," said the Marine's mother.  

 

Fernando Alfonso III

IRL

Posted on Jul 26, 2014   Updated on May 30, 2021, 9:30 pm CDT

It was a priceless American flag that was lost for years.

The flag contained about two dozen messages and was found in Hemphill, Texas, at a flea market. Messages like, “We’ll always remember the sacrifice you made,” were for Lance Cpl. Fred Maciel, a Marine who had died in a helicopter crash in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2005.

It was found by Lanie Brown, who paid $5 for it. Brown searched Facebook to track down Maciel’s family, who lived about two hours from Hemphill.

“I never knew it existed and here is this flag, in a flea market over two hours away from me,” Fred’s mother Patsy told click2houston. “Nobody knows how it got there.”

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The Brown family planned on meeting today at Fred’s grave to give the flag to the Maciels.

H/T click2houston.com | Photo by kennethkonica/Flickr (CC BY ND 2.0)

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*First Published: Jul 26, 2014, 2:33 pm CDT