Mantorville honors servicemembers with field of flags

MANTORVILLE Minn. (KTTC) – The community of Mantorville is coming together to to honor past and present family members and friends who’ve served in the armed forces, law enforcement, fire, and medical services.

Saturday, the local American Legion and VFW hosted its annual Field of Flags ceremony at the Government Services Building.

Community members donated $10 per flag. They then placed their flag on the field as their name and the person or branch they dedicated their flag to was called.

In the end, 200 flags were placed in the field, raising $2,000 for the community.

At the end of the ceremony, volunteers rang out the Bell of Honor.

“In 2022, I received my orders that I would be deployed to Iraq in preparation for an invasion. When they issues us all the equipment, they gave us a gas mask and all our gear, our M-16 and then they handed us a bayonet. At that point, we knew this was real,” Kasson Police Department officer & Iraq war veteran Jesse Kaesel said.

All of the money raised is going right back into Dodge County to help local veterans get to medical appointments, build ramps and other accessible entrances and help veterans experiencing homelessness.

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