Soldier's flag to fly over cemetery

The flag that will be raised above the Veterans Memorial at C.E. Conrad Memorial Cemetery on Memorial Day will be that of the late Staff Sgt. Edward Fuller of Kalispell.

Fuller was a distinguished B-17 turret gunner with the Army Air Corps during World War II.

His plane was shot down in June 1943 and all 10 crew members were all captured. Fuller, who was 23 at the time, broke his back in the crash and spent 22 months as a prisoner of war at Stalag XVII-B in Krems, Austria, before being liberated by advancing U.S. forces.

The only souvenir he brought home from those years was a picture his German captors took of him with his prisoner number while he was being interrogated shortly after he was taken prisoner.

The look of uncertainty captured in his eyes is clear.

His obituary recounted one of his most vivid memories from the war: the day his large group of POWs was freed while marching with their captors.

That day the Stars and Stripes flew above the jeep driven by the American captain who came to liberate them, and for the rest of his life the flag remained a symbol of the sacrifice so many of his fellow airmen had made.

In the years to come he passed on his abiding love of his country to his children.

Fuller credited his survival as a prisoner of war to growing up in tough times in Montana during the Depression. He and the high school sweetheart he would marry both grew up in Central Montana near Stanford.

After he was liberated in 1945, he married Barbara Knox on the Knox ranch north of Stanford. The newlyweds came to the Flathead and Glacier Park on their honeymoon.

Barbara's mother had purchased a farm on the Stillwater River in Kalispell and the Fullers decided to stay in the valley to raise their family.

The Fullers' home has a special place for framed photos and memorabilia from his military career, plus the casket flag. There are postcards he had sent to his mother in Stanford while he was a prisoner, and books written by friends - remembrances of their military years.

Barbara Fuller is proud to have her husband's flag fly above Conrad Cemetery, the place where her husband is buried, during the coming year.

She is also looking forward to visiting her son in Washington, D.C. this summer and paying a visit to the new World War II Memorial dedicated last September.

The flag that has flown the past year at the cemetery belonged to Kalispell resident Harry Farrington. The Farrington family donated the pole to the cemetery in 2004. His casket flag was the first to be flown on the new pole.

Farrington served in U.S. Army during World War II and was awarded the Purple Heart. After the war, he met and married Kathryn O'Neil of Kalispell. He worked for Conrad National Bank, and later became vice president of the bank, now called First Interstate. He died April 30, 2003.