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American Legion receives flag from Afghanistan

Thanks to its extensive efforts to support the troops, Sonoma’s American Legion Post #489 was presented with an American flag from the 349th Aero-Medical Evacuation Squadron. Col. Nancy Mikulin, who personally flies the care packages and quilts collected by the American Legion to Afghanistan from Travis Air Force Base, gave the flag to the local post.

“This post is quite unique,” Mikulin said. “The consistency with this post, I can always count on them.”

The American Legion has sent almost 400 hand-made quilts, 700 pillowcases and hundreds of care packages stuffed with creature comforts to cheer troops serving abroad. They take all of the donations to Travis, where Mikulin picks it up and delivers it directly to the hospital in Afghanistan.

“It goes directly to the back door,” she said, adding that the quilts and pillowcases are especially needed in the hospital. “They can’t reuse linens because they can’t wash them. Water is hard to come by out there.”

The flag was flown on a mission across Afghanistan. “This particular flag was with me on a mission in the middle of March. We were flying all over the country to pick up patients and take them to Germany for care,” Mikulin said.

The Quilts for the Troops program is run by Sonoman Bob and Kaye Kinsey and is based out of Broadway Quilts. Gery Rosemurgy, proprietor of Broadway Quilts, was presented a certificate of appreciation from Travis for her continual support of the program.

The American Legion will again be collecting donations for the Christmas care packages for the troops. Look for donation barrels at businesses across Sonoma beginning later this month, including Broadway Quilts.