Marking the Fourth of July

From atop the building came a cry of, “Let’s give it a try!”

Then a half dozen volunteers and Waynesboro government officials reached over the edge and let go of the largest flag the city has ever seen.

Down came 760 square feet of red, white and blue that reached from ground to rooftop along the facade of the Thomas L. Gorsuch Municipal Building at 250 S. Wayne Ave.

The garrison flag, on loan from the Marine Corps’ Headquarters Battalion, Henderson Hall in Arlington, was brought to the city as an Independence Day kickoff by Jim Donovan, a retired Marine.

It is one of only a few flags of its size flying in the United States, and flies only on holidays, Donovan said.

“I got some good pictures,” Frank Spencer, 80, of Waynesboro, said after the informal unfurling.

The Air Force veteran camped out in a chair in a nearby patch of shade as the flag crew attached clips, ropes and sandbags to secure the flag atop the building.

“I think this is the biggest one that I’ve ever seen,” Spencer said. “That’s quite a display.”

Passers-by clapped after the unfurling and marveled at the stars (larger than a handspan) and stripes.

“It’s an attempt to start something bigger than life,” said Lindsay Hooper Jr., 86, an Army veteran who flew over China in World War II.

A friend of Donovan, Hooper lamented a lack of patriotic displays in town, but said the massive flag was a step in the right direction.

“The fourth is to celebrate the basis of independence,” he said, “and to honor the living and dead who have paid the price ... because freedom isn’t free.”

A group of Fishburne Military School summer cadets will attempt to fold the flag today at 3 p.m.