600 flags a year were veteran's legacy

600 flags a year were veteran's legacy

He wouldn't let others be forgotten

Since at least 1996, Ford had collected and repaired old military flag holders in his workshop at his Mount Victory home. When he made his annual rounds of the cemeteries, he replaced broken flag holders and gave every veteran's grave he could find a colorful, crisp and new U.S. flag.

A paratrooper and scout with the Army's 517th Infantry Regiment in World War II, Ford fought in the European Theatre and the Battle of the Bulge. He earned a Combat Infantry Badge and four Purple Hearts.

Ford died, apparently of a heart attack, on Tuesday morning in Lancaster, where he and his wife had been living after he became ill last year. He was 86.

He lost his left arm during a test of a 75 mm gun during the war. It never stopped him. He was a self-taught electrician and spent 40 years driving a tractor-trailer he rigged so that he could operate it one-handed.