BANGOR (AP) – A Maine Air National Guard member is flying the state flag over his base in Iraq thanks to help from a state lawmaker.

Staff Sgt. Philip Hamm contacted state Rep. Chris Greeley, R-Levant, via e-mail and requested Maine state flags for Kirkuk Air Base, where Greeley and five other Mainers are training local firefighters and responding to fire and emergency calls.

Hamm, who received two flags a couple of weeks ago, was not able to fly the flags initially because of security concerns at the base.

Now, though, they’re flying at the base in Kirkuk, which is at the center of Iraq’s oil industry, about 150 miles north of Baghdad.

“With everything going on here, it is nice to see something that represents where I am from and why we are here,” said Hamm, who’s from Glenburn.

The American flag normally isn’t flown on bases because it would pinpoint the location to insurgents and because soldiers don’t want to give the appearance of an occupying force, said Lt. Shanon Cotta, spokesman for the Maine Army National Guard.

The determination on state flags is made on an individual basis by base commanders. Even when flags are flown, there are restrictions on the height.

“I want to be able to fly the same flag that I have here at home to constantly remind me of the sacrifices I made, as well as my other brothers and sisters’ I came with,” Hamm said.

Hamm has been in the service for 12 years and works as a firefighter and paramedic for the Bangor Fire Department. The fire station at the base consists of 39 soldiers from Delaware, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Maine. The soldiers have responded to more than 140 fire and emergency medical calls since arriving on base.

“These calls range from grass fires to building fires,” Hamm wrote in an e-mail to the Bangor Daily News. “They can happen anytime during the hottest part of the day when it is 120 degrees or more, or when rockets are fired onto the base.”

The unit has trained more than 100 firefighters in the area and burned more than 1,500 acres of dead shrubs and grass to limit potential fires that would damage assets on base, he said.

The language barrier has proved confusing in training local firefighters, even though the soldiers use an interpreter, said Tech. Sgt. Norman Harrington of Bangor.

Harrington serves as crew chief and helped teach firefighter classes to the Iraqis, according to Hamm. Other Mainers serving with Hamm and Harrington are Master Sgt. Gregory Jordan of Waltham, Tech. Sgt. Ryan Murray of Fairfield, Staff Sgt. Ben Donnerstag of Bangor, and Senior Army Adviser Kyle Milan of Bangor.

“You get a sense of self-satisfaction knowing that you are making a difference, even if it is a slight one like training new firefighters how to do their job,” Hamm said, adding that serving in Iraq has been a humbling experience.