JAY – During a flag-changing ceremony, veterans paid respect Thursday to Maine’s soldiers who have given the “supreme sacrifice.”

The cloudy skies cleared to let the sun shine at the Prisoner of War/Missing in Action memorial on Riley Road.

Heads bowed as the names of the soldiers killed in the Iraq war were read, including Spc. Christopher D. Gelineau of Portland who was killed Tuesday when his convoy was ambushed on a highway in northern Iraq.

Three new flags were raised during the ceremony.

The American flag that had been draped over the casket of the late Cpl. Bernard L. Gray Sr., an Army veteran, was donated and raised in Gray’s honor by his son, Bernard Gray Jr., and daughter, Barbra Gray Letalien.

The Prisoner of War/Missing in Action flag was raised in honor of a former prisoner of war in Germany in World War II, the late Joseph Groomes Sr., by his son, Joseph Groomes Jr., and former prisoner of war Larry Brochu.

Livermore Falls Town Manager Alan Gove and Frank L. Mitchell VFW Auxiliary President Lynn Dunton raised the state flag in memory of all Mainers who sacrificed their lives for freedom in all wars.

After the ceremony, John Dube, a member of the VFW and POW/MIA Memorial Committee, said the flags are changed three or four times a year. He also noted that he has only three casket-size flags left and could use more if anyone wanted to donate a loved one’s flag.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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