08 March 2019

Memorial Flags on Carbon Canyon Road S-Curve in Chino Hills

Several years ago I met Sarah Vanderpool at a Carbon Canyon event and we talked about her family's many years of living in the Canyon, specifically on the hillside about the S-curve along Carbon Canyon Road on the Chino Hills side.

In recent years, flags have been appearing along a slope at the central section of the S-curve in between Sarah's house and that of her brother.  There have been both white flags and American flags place there and today's Orange County Register has a very interesting article about  Sarah and the reason she puts these flags out.

She does this to honor fallen American soldiers with the most recent flag placement, the ninth, being in honor of a 24-year old Pennsylvania, Sgt. Jason McClary, who was killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan in December.

Sarah has strong connections to the military, dating back to an ancestor who fought in the Civil War and also including her father, who a fighter pilot; her son, who is in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division; her daughter, who was injured in training operations; and her daughter's husband, currently deployed in Honduras as a Black Hawk helicopter pilot.

So, as commuters ply the route up and down the S-curve, more of them hopefully will know why Sarah places these flags and appreciate the effort she has made to honor our troops.

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