MORGANTOWN – Eleanor didn’t concede to the elements Thursday.
The old soldiers who were there to assist didn’t either.
“Eleanor,” is the ceremonial name given to the giant American flag now waving at the front entrance of Valley HealthCare System’s main offices on Scott Avenue.
The christening is in honor of former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who elevated coal mining families along Scott’s Run mired in crushing poverty after the stock market crash in 1929 – the opening act to the Great Depression.
Roosevelt had a strong history of promotion of the American flag, seeing it as a symbol of peace and unity for the American people and to the global community.
Members of Marine Corps Detachment 342 unfold the American flag in the rain as part of Thursday’s ceremonies at Valley HealthCare.
Honor guards from Westover’s VFW Post 9916 and Marine Corps League Detachment 342 of Morgantown stood at ramrod attention in a steady rain – never mind that a number of them are now in their 70s and older – as the flag was being installed.
Their discipline and sense of duty wasn’t lost on Chris Staud.
“Each time we do this it gets more emotional,” said Staud, who is the founder of the Forgotten Flag Foundation in Canonsburg, Pa.
“They’re why we do this,” he said, nodding in the direction of those honor guard soldiers who have never stopped saluting or serving their country.
Well, there’s that, he said, and something else.
The Forgotten Flag Foundation of Canonsburg, Pa., raised an American and a 250th flag during ceremonies at Valley HealthCare on Thursday.
There’s the hope, he said, of reweaving a sense of community that he says is now being frayed and tattered by winds of change – much like a worse-for-wear flag atop a pitted, beat-to-hell flagpole.
Or, a pitted, beat-to-hell flagpole … sans flag.
That’s what got him into all this.
For years, he kept spying an old flagpole down the road from his house.
One autumn, after the leaves had finally dropped, he looked through a calligraphy-swirl of branches to fully regard the desolate-looking device.
He acquired an American flag to top it – and a new mission to satisfy a civic longing he didn’t necessarily realize was there, as said.
It wasn’t politics. It was patriotism.
And respect – for neighbors and places.
Staud is a U.S. Army veteran who worked with Apache helicopters.
On a September morning in 2001, under achingly clear blue skies at his Colorado military base, he was staring a hole into the American flag patch that was stitched onto his uniform.
He was finishing his tour and was looking forward to an honorable discharge from the military later that fall.
“I was going home. I had two months to go. Then Sept. 11 hit. I knew what I had to do then.”
He reenlisted, and his subsequent tours put him right in the war zone – but he doesn’t tell war stories.
Instead, he looks back on the mobilization of community and spirit.
And, as he said, of the patriotism that percolated across cities, towns and no-towns. Just like the Greatest Generation.
The Forgotten Flag Foundation, which will turn a year old on July 14, restores American flag displays in public places. Sometimes, it helps install whole new displays in public places.
It gets veterans groups and school groups and other civic groups involved.
Dr. Brian Sharp, Valley HealthCare’s CEO, said Eleanor – as in the red, white and blue fixture in the parking lot – should feel right at home, thanks to Staud’s foundation, which was an integral player in Thursday’s proceedings there.
Valley HealthCare is known for its outreach for veterans and their families battling emotional maladies.
Those are the kinds of trials, the CEO said, where visual symbolism can be just as important as the clinical sides of the regimen.
“The new flagpole stands as a lasting tribute to our veterans and to Valley’s Veterans Coalition,” Sharp said, referring to the in-house support group for those who wore the uniform in service of their country.
“It reminds us daily of the sacrifices made to protect the freedoms we hold dear and the values embodied by the Stars and Stripes,” the CEO continued.
Staud wants the Forgotten Flag Foundation to unfurl its work everywhere, he said – but he likes for now that the nonprofit organization is making its name in a region where patriotism and that call to service have long marched in lockstep.
He’s a western Pennsylvania native with north-central West Virginia bona fides, too.
For years, his grandparents owned and operated their landmark Staud’s Restaurant in Fairmont.
Now, he said, a certain American flag can be a landmark in Morgantown.
“Imagine being a veteran who’s struggling,” he said. “You drive into Valley HealthCare and the first thing you see is Eleanor.”
For more on the Forgotten Flag Foundation, go to https://www.dominionpost.com/2026/07/10/patriotism-clear-mission-of-forgotten-flag-foundation/
