By Hannah Burney
The Hamilton Hometown Heroes Veterans Banners have become a recognizable scene lining High Street, Main Street and other main roadways in the city, honoring local veterans, those missing in action and those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
Jack Whalen, a veteran himself, noticed veterans banners while traveling in the Adirondack area of New York. He presented the idea of bringing similar banners to Hamilton at a meeting of the Hamilton Veterans Hall of Fame, and the idea took off.
Veteran and City Councilman Tim Naab, other members of the Hamilton Veterans Hall of Fame Committee, and partners such as the City of Hamilton, the Greater Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and the Hamilton Community Foundation helped get the project underway and have kept it going. The program is now entering its fourth year.
Many veterans banner programs outsource design to larger companies, but Whalen and Naab wanted to bring a unique take to the project. They partnered with local company Lemon Grenade Creative to design the banners. These banners are larger than most veterans banners, so they are more visible to those passing by.
Each branch of the military is represented by a different color on the banners. Army is green, Navy is navy blue, the Marine Corps is red, Air Force is light blue, Coast Guard is teal, Merchant Mariners are navy blue and the Army Air Corps is green.
Whalen said the banners also hold information such as rank and medals received, with special honor given to those who died in service.
“We made a decision early on to honor the people who gave their lives and lost their lives in service. So the High and Main Street Bridge has the banners of people who died in the military. You can’t believe the number of them. It’s amazing when you start seeing the number of people that lost their lives…it’s a lot more than you would expect. That’s a special place of honor for the people that gave their lives. And if you look at the banners, they have the symbol you have for somebody that died in service: a rifle with a bayonet on the ground and then a helmet on top of it. And that is on the banners. If you see that on the banner, that means somebody gave their life while in the service.”
How to Apply
The Veterans Banners are open for application from Veterans Day through the end of January each year. Those commemorated on the banners must be current residents of Hamilton or have resided in Hamilton in the past. Each year the banners go up on light posts all over the city by Armed Forces Day and are taken down just after Veterans Day.
Finding a specific banner among the hundreds now lining Hamilton’s streets is easier than ever. New this year, the City of Hamilton has launched an interactive Veteran Banner Location Map, which lets families and visitors search for a veteran by name and see exactly which post displays their banner. The map, along with a full directory of this year’s banners, is available at hamilton-oh.gov/veterans-heroes-banners-directory.
To be eligible for a banner, veterans must have been honorably discharged. Members of the program review each application, checking paperwork, confirming rank and more. “Once you have the banners made, you have to proof them,” Whalen said. “And then we send them out to the people who made the application so that they can review them for accuracy.”
Family or friends who wish to purchase a banner must go through the application process and pay for the banner. The charge is the exact cost of production. In cases where cost creates a barrier, the Hamilton Community Foundation has funding set aside to help offset the costs for families who may need it.
“There’s not an extra nickel, or a dime, or a penny left,” Naab said. “The $180 pays for the banner, for the company that does the art design, and for the company that actually makes the vinyl-canvas banner for us.”
Sometimes documents get lost over the years, and families may not have access to the paperwork needed for the application. Through outside organizations, the Veterans Banners program is often able to research and find missing information. “They redact any critical data, any critical information that I shouldn’t see,” Naab said. “But importantly, we can usually go back and discover and find the loved one that they’re looking for all the way back through World War I.”
The Stories Behind the Banners
Both Naab and Whalen noted that the stories behind each banner are what have made this project special to be a part of. “I will tell you, I’ve been in a number of things in the community and been involved in a lot of different boards and so forth,” Whalen said. “This was a lot of fun. This was fun because there were great stories.”
American history is represented in these stories. Banners go back to the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War, all the way through the present. “We’ve got these heroes—the stories are just incredible,” Naab said. “…that we can actually go back and trace back.”
Many families have several banners. One family has 13 banners in total. Kathy Klink, former city council member and active Hamiltonian, purchased a banner for her Aunt Martha. Naab says this banner is one of the few Coast Guard banners on display and is one of the stories he loves most. Aunt Martha enlisted and served in the Coast Guard during World War II.
“She went into the Coast Guard on purpose to help our country, and served for a couple of years before she was honorably discharged. And she did it on purpose because the country was at war and she wanted to do her part rather than become a Rosie the Riveter or work in the war effort in a factory while the men were off fighting in Europe and fighting in Japan and stuff like that.”
When members of the Hamilton Veterans Hall of Fame created the Hamilton Hometown Heroes Veterans Banners program, they were ecstatic to have 126 banners purchased to honor local veterans that first year. Now, as the program enters its fourth year, it has grown exponentially. This year, the program includes over 900 banners honoring local individuals who have served the country.
“The long-term goal is to continue the project,” Naab said. “And to be able to continue to recognize those service members that have served our country honorably.”
Applications for next year’s banners are open now through the end of January.