AUGUSTA – Dixie Flagg held her son’s Army ID tag in one hand. With the other, she held her grandson, Keegan, who never got to meet his dad.

“Take deep breaths,” the Phillips mother told herself Thursday as she stepped forward and hung the Army tag from a bronze sculpture resembling a makeshift war memorial. It depicted a rifle with its bayonet stuck in the ground. A helmet sat on top and rumpled combat boots stood at the base.

The ID tag for Flagg’s son, Sgt. Richard Parker, joined seven others that hung from the sculpture. All bore the names of soldiers from the Maine National Guard who were killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Gov. John Baldacci led a 40-minute service Thursday to dedicate the new statue and honor the eight Maine soldiers.

“The state and citizens here never do forget,” Baldacci said during the solemn ceremony held in the State House’s Hall of Flags.

The honored soldiers included Sgt. Christopher Gelineau of Portland, Staff Sgt. Lynn Poulin of Freedom, Sgt. Thomas Dostie of Somerville, First Sgt. Michael Jones of Unity, Staff Sgt. Dale Kelly of Richmond, Staff Sgt. David Veverka, a University of Maine student from Jamestown, Pa. and Capt. Patrick Damon of Falmouth.

Eventually, the memorial will be installed in the lobby of the Maine National Guard Headquarters at Camp Keyes in Augusta.

“We’re not here to celebrate these men,” said Maj. Gen. Bill Libby, Maine’s adjutant general. “We’re here to honor and remember.”

The sculpture sat unfinished until the families added the dog tags inscribed with their soldiers’ names.

One by one, widows, mothers and fathers stood, walked to the sculpture and hung the tags from the hand grip of the gun replica.

When they were done, some wept. Kelly’s widow stood at attention and saluted.

Flagg shook uncontrollably.

“I can’t describe it,” she said a few minutes later.

There were too many emotions all at once, she said.

Little Keegan was only 6 months old when a roadside bomb killed his dad in Iraq. Now a 20-month-old toddler, he squirmed during the ceremony.

Yet, he held still as his grandmother clutched him, approached the memorial and fought her own shaking.

“Prayer helps a little,” she said.

Since his death last June, Flagg has been working to remember her son with a park about a mile outside of Strong. She is also organizing a benefit auction and supper for October.

Will anyone forget her son?

“I won’t let them,” Flagg said.

n Afghanistan, Iraq dead: A list of Maine National Guard troops killed in action. A5