Flags from combat units fly over SDPD headquarters

By: North County Times wire services | Tuesday, February 17, 2004 10:59 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO - American flags that flew over a U.S. embassy in Afghanistan and on a warship in the Persian Gulf found a new home today at the headquarters of a police agency with 15 members serving military duty overseas.

"This flag will wave proudly for those who serve valiantly for our country," San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne said after a color guard raised one of the well-traveled banners outside downtown SDPD headquarters.

Lansdowne was referring to a flag that flew in Kabul during Operation Enduring Freedom before making its way to its new post near the southeast corner of 14th Street and Broadway.

On the other side of the station house, the white-gloved guardsmen raised the other set of Stars and Stripes on a staff in a courtyard at 15th and E streets.

Several sailors stood at attention along with police personnel as the former Navy-flown flag rose above a back entrance to the seven-story headquarters building.

Federico Lucero, an Army Reserves sergeant major and SDPD mechanic who served in the Middle East as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, was clearly touched by the symbolism of the service.

"It felt good -- just chills all over my body," he told reporters, his voice wavering.

One of the SDPD employees who remains on active military duty overseas, Marine Master Sgt. Joel McMurrin, arranged the department's inheritance of the flag that flew for a time in the Afghani capital.

The Navy donated the other flag, which flew aboard the USS Fletcher, a destroyer based at Pearl Harbor.

At one point, 27 SDPD employees were serving as military reservists in the war-torn Iraqi and Afghan regions.

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