BY SUSAN WARE
Doris Manning said hand writing the names of every soldier killed in Iraq doesn’t make her feel better about the war, it makes her feel like she is doing something to honor them.
“It was in March and I was so frustrated with seeing names of soldiers who were killed night after night on TV,” said Manning.
Determined to grasp the scope of how many Americans had lost their lives, she and her husband scoured the Internet looking for a complete list of deceased soldiers.
Armed with a thick Sharpie and her basset hound, Baxter, by her side, she set to work, writing the name and age of each soldier on a flag she had at home.
Soon the flag was full and today, she is working on her eighth flag, inscribing her 3,587th name.
“It is so tragic. What really gets to me is when I write their age. So many kids have been killed over there,” she said.
Manning, 57, is not a veteran, and neither is her husband, Michael, 58, but they wholeheartedly support our troops.
“My husband kind of thought I was crazy the first time I started writing names on the flag, but now we take turns getting the names every night,” she said.
Manning is a hairdresser in Hudson and she said one of her clients gave her money to fund the next flag.
“I have gotten a lot of positive feedback, so far nothing negative. I was hoping soldiers’ families wouldn’t get upset, but realize that there are people out there who know what happened to their loved one,” said Manning.
For Manning, she said she will continue monitoring the death toll and documenting the names and ages on American flags until the wart in Iraq is over.
“People need to realize that although there are four, five or six deaths reported in one night, the total is in the thousands,” she said.
Manning’s supporters have been looking for a suitable spot for the collection of flags, which she is very protective of, to be displayed once the war is over.
She gained notoriety over the Memorial Day weekend for the display of flags she had on her lawn, but has since brought the flags inside.
“This turned into a bigger project than I expected, but it is much less of a project than our soldiers face over there,” she said.