County Flag flies with Coast Guard
By Elizabeth Coyle
Gazette Associate Editor

SNBM David Wenger, currently on leave from the U.S. Coast Guard helps to display the signed Bedford County flag he had flown avove his ship in January. The Bedford County Historical Society sent two flags, one for him and one for him to fly above the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy where he was serving for the past year. From left are Gillian Leach, executive director of the Bedford County Historical Society, Wenger, and Raymond Jackson, treasurer for the society.The flag is autographed by Wenger and his shipmates.

During a sunny day in January, Bedford County's crimson flag flew against a deep blue sky above a Coast Guard ship in the Persian Gulf.

On board was Boatswain's Mate David Wenger, 23, a 2006 Chestnut Ridge graduate, who had a certain amount of pride seeing his county's flag flying near the ensigns of the U.S. and Coast Guard.

Wenger, son of Karl and Kathie Wenger, returned to his home in Cessna this month, after finishing his assignment aboard the U.S. Coast Guard's Cutter Monomoy.

He enlisted in 2007 and first spent time in Oregon as part of fisheries patrol.

In 2009, he seized the opportunity to travel halfway around the world to a different kind of patrol duty: protecting oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf off Iraq. The Cutter Monomoy, part of the Patrol Forces Southwest Asia, defends an oil platform and pipeline 12 miles out from the Iraqi coast in the northern part of the gulf.

"I love it," he said of his service with the Coast Guard. His 210-foot patrol boat and its crew kept watch on possible attacks on the oil pipeline, keeping unauthorized boats outside the perimeter.

The Bedford County flag flies near the flags for the U.S. and the U.S. Coast Guard earlier this year. SNBM David Wenger of Cessna arranged for a flag to be delivered to him and then flown high above the cutter.

He wanted to show his pride in his home state, maybe, and checked the internet. "Some people just fly the American flag and send them back home to family. I was looking around online for a flag and happened to find Bedford County had a flag."

He contacted the Bedford County Historical Society and asked to buy a flag as a keepsake, and suggested they could send a second one he could fly for a day, giving it special status as a flag that flew during the ship's military service. The society sent him two county flags at no charge: one for him and one to send back for the society's displays.

Bedford County adopted the flag in 2008 following a design contest won by Todd Greenawalt of Snake Spring Valley. The flag, that includes oak and mountain laurel leaves on a crimson background with the year of the county's formation, 1771, and the Pennsylvania keystone, was approved by the county commissioners as the official county flag.

Bedford County Historical Society Executive Director Gillian Leach said the flag will be part of the archives, helping to tell the story of the current military action. It is symbolic not only of a current servicemen's duties but of all servicemen and women who fought to defend their flag.

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy pose with the Bedford County flag. David Wegner, 2006 Chestnut Ridge graduate, had the flag flown over the ship earlier this year. It was shipped back to the Bedford County Historical Society where it will be displayed.

"During the Civil War, men died trying to protect the flag - the colors of the regiment - and it's been that way for a long, long time. Men held the flag in honor. They died for it," Leach said.

The sailors aboard the Monomoy signed the flag, giving it even more importance as a historical artifact, Leach added.

"To have it here is a sign of honor," she said. "This is a flag that flew over a ship while America (is) at war."

Wenger's assignment on the Monomoy is complete and now he is headed to another battlefield of a different kind: the Gulf of Mexico where the Coast Guard is responsible to the ongoing oil spill disaster.

When Wenger returns to the Coast Guard at the beginning of June, he will board the Cutter Elm which left Atlantic Beach, N.C., May 11 to support cleanup.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Monomoy is assigned to patrol the northern part of the Persian Gulf to protect oil drilling infrastructure.

According to the Coast Guard, the 220-foot Elm will direct a task force of "skimming assets" to intercept pockets of oil that threaten Gulf Coast ecosystems and critical infrastructure. The Elm is one of a class of 16 Coast Guard cutters designed with the capability to skim spilled oil.

Wenger noted that the Elm is designed as a buoy tender that maintains these navigation tools offshore and in restricted waters.

Although he said he will miss the friends he had while patrolling in the Persian Gulf, it's good to be back in the U.S.

"I made some pretty good friends but am glad to be back in the states," he said.