Captain Tom Tokartz (Air Force), Norman Way (Puritan Cleaners), and Sgt. Ralph Phillips (Marines)

At Puritan Cleaners, we have a program called “Puritan’s Pledge of Allegiance” where we clean American flags free of charge. We have cleaned many flags over the years, but recently it was our privilege to clean a vintage 1950 American flag for a local WWII group. The flag has 48 stars and measures over twenty feet wide.

The flag was brought in by Captain Tom Tokartz, a service veteran who belongs to the WWII Round Table of Central Virginia. Captain Tokartz asked us to clean the flag, then presented it to the WWII Round Table at their forum on the evening of October 14th.
The flag was used as a backdrop for that evening’s forum, which featured a first hand account of B-29 bombing missions over Germany in 1945 by 2nd Lt. Phil True, a navigator on one of the planes that flew those missions.

Norman Way, Director of Operations at Puritan Cleaners had the privilege of attending that evening’s meeting, and had the following comments. “It was our privilege to help such a fine group of American heroes. To hear their personal testimonies of World War II was truly amazing. Meeting people like this is one of the best benefits to having our free flag cleaning program. It’s our hope that more people will seek them out and acknowledge them for their contributions to our country.”

WWII Round Table of Central Virginia meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7PM followed by a social at 3480 Batterson Road, Powhatan, Virginia. For more information about them, please visit their website at www.ww2rtcva.com