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Military father joins national effort to honor fallen troops

Hamilton is first city in Ohio to adopt the Honor and Rembember flag and support its mission.

Thomas Mitchell (left) and Tom Kuhl, standing at Veterans Park in Hamilton, hope to fly this flag honoring troops killed in war below every flying American flag.

Staff photo by Samantha Grier Thomas Mitchell (left) and Tom Kuhl, standing at Veterans Park in Hamilton, hope to fly this flag honoring troops killed in war below every flying American flag.

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By Dave Greber, Staff Writer 9:59 PM Wednesday, May 12, 2010

HAMILTON — A local man is joining a national effort to ensure fallen service members are honored and remembered for the ultimate sacrifice.

Thomas Mitchell, of Hamilton, is the director of the Ohio Chapter of Honor and Remember, a nonprofit organization that began in 2005 in the wake of the death of a 25-year-old Virginia man at the hands of a sniper outside Fallujah, Iraq.

The serviceman’s father, George Lutz, found in the months that followed his son’s funeral he had been thrust into an unfortunate fraternity of families whose children died while serving their country.

That same year, Mitchell’s close friend’s nephew met a similar fate while serving in Iraq, a situation that left him wanting “to do something to remember him.”

After months prayer, Mitchell came upon the national organization, which at the time already had chapters in North Carolina, Alaska and Virginia. The purpose of Honor and Remember is two-fold: To have the organization’s symbol — a red, white and blue flag with a gold star and red flame — adopted nationally, and to get a personalized flag in the hands of every living parent of a child lost during military service.

Since January, Mitchell has started the push statewide, making Ohio the fourth chapter of Honor and Remember. On April 28, Hamilton City Council became the first state entity to adopt the flag and support its mission. A bill to do the same nationally is being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.

“We’re not about whether you support the war in Afghanistan, or the war on terror, or whether you believe the Vietnam War was right or wrong,” Mitchell said. “It’s about the fact that for the past 240 years, mothers and fathers have sacrificed their sons and daughters for our freedom.”

An estimated 70,000 service members from Ohio have died since the Civil War, including 13 Butler County residents who served during conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mitchell said.

Mitchell said he hopes to only give the flag to other families and not receive one himself, as two of his four sons are set to be deployed to different parts of Afghanistan in the coming months.

“I hope I never, ever, ever get to feel what these people feel,” he said this week, sitting with Ohio Chapter Assistant Director Tom Kuhl, also of Hamilton, at Veterans Park.

Personalized flags cost $325 each. For more information, visit www.honorandremember.org, or via Facebook at Honor and Remember of Ohio.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2112 or dgreber@coxohio.com.

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