NKY flags symbolize veteran suicides

CRESCENT SPRINGS – A Northern Kentucky city planted 660 U.S. flags as a display of shock at the number of U.S. veteran or soldier suicides each month.

Veterans planted flags Thursday evening in front of the Northern Kentucky 9/11 Memorial at Crescent Springs Community Park within view of drivers on busy Buttermilk Pike.

Crescent Springs Mayor Lou Hartfiel, a U.S. Air Force veteran, was shocked when he learned 22 veterans or soldiers commit suicide each day, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs study released in July 2016. Hartfiel read the news about veterans suicides in a March 27 Enquirer story about 660 flags planted on a Mount Adams hillside by a grieving father.

"I was just shocked that there were 660 veterans a month committing suicide," Hartfiel said.

Members of the public need to be informed, the mayor said.

Hartfiel plans to keep the flags flying for at least a month with a sign stating, "These 660 flags represent the number of veterans that die by their own hand every month."

"I didn't realize what was happening," he said. "Maybe we can do something about it," Hartfiel said.

Grieving father Howard Berry, of Sycamore Township, Ohio, in March planted flags in Mount Adams and – at Hartfiel's request – planted the flags in Crescent Springs as well. Berry's son U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joshua Berry took his life in February 2013 after having post-traumatic stress disorder.

More adequate and speedy U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) care for veterans with post-traumatic stress and other mental health issues is needed, Berry said.

Howard Berry will plant 660 more flags outside the Cincinnati VA Medical Center May 20. He plans to plant 660 flags near the VA's Fort Thomas location later this year.

Crescent Springs donated all 660 flags for the city's display.

"I'm amazed at the outpouring of support in Northern Kentucky," Berry said.

►YOUR LOCAL LEADERS: Crescent Springs elected officials

Berry started planting flags after years of making phone calls and in-person pleas to congressmen that seemingly netted no results.

"To me each one of these flags represents a human being who volunteered to defend our freedom who is not here," Berry said.

Berry said he speaks with outrage because it's hard to get people to pay attention to the issue.

"We say no soldier left behind," Berry said. "What these folks died from is indifference."