Flag display brings awareness to suicide

American flags seem to be multiplying by the day along the greenway in Plains. They are.

It's all part of Joint Operation Mariposa, a nonprofit organization created to bring awareness to veteran suicides and the families who are impacted.

Each evening, Ed Foste, vice president of the organization and a Navy veteran, puts out 22 flags, most of the time under the cover of darkness. Seldom is he noticed and the following day, 22 more American flags appear around a silhouetted kneeling soldier and a large Green Star flag, which represents the families who were touched by a veteran's suicide.

Foste has been putting out the flags since Sept. 9 to represent the 22 veterans who commit suicide every day. As of Monday evening, when Air Force veteran Heather Allen and Plains Mayor Dan Rowan helped place 22 flags, there were 320 flags on the greenway, plus one flag that represented a Sanders County civilian who committed suicide last week, said Foste.

"I just want to educate people about the veteran suicide problem. It's something that needs to be talked about," said the 57-year-old Plains man. Foste served aboard eight aircraft carriers during his 20-year career, most of which was done on an aircraft carrier flight line, a mentally strenuous job. With his flag display, Foste constructed a 4x5-foot plywood silhouette soldier and a near seven-foot-high wooden cross to go with the display, which includes solar lights at the base of the soldier. VFW Post 3596 loaned Foste the flags.

"I think that the work Ed is doing to raise awareness about veteran suicide and prevention is very important for veterans, their families and our community. The flag display is part of that effort and I fully support it," Rowan said.

At times, he did the job by himself. Other times, he's had help from up to 15 people, young and old, including veterans, children, a doctor and a pastor. Foste said he positions the flags at night for the "awe and shock" value so they would be surprised to see it grow. "I try to get people engaged and talk about it. It's not something people like to talk about. It's a really bad problem, not just for the military, but for all of us," said Foste. People hear he's doing it and ask him about it. Some of the people who helped him also asked questions. Foste plans to continue building the flag display until Sept. 30, the end of Suicide Awareness Month.

Jesse Raymond, an Army veteran, helped Foste Saturday evening. "I think it's really a blessing that the community and the mayor recognize veterans and support them," said Raymond, who was also a Department of Defense contractor in Baghdad for two years. The veteran suicide epidemic touched Raymond in a more personal way when one of his closest soldier friends, Sergeant 1st Class John Matthew Fuller, committed suicide in Illinois last year. Raymond, 37, grew up in Thompson Falls before transferring to a youth military academy in Michigan.

Suicide also touched Foste on a personal level when his brother, Jay, a veteran of the Army who served in combat with the 82nd Airborne, committed suicide fives years ago. According to the Veterans Administration (VA), there were 53 veteran suicides in Montana in 2017 and 6,139 nationwide.

"Suicide prevention is VA's top clinical priority, and VA has adopted a public health approach to suicide prevention," according to the VA website. "The goal of VA's suicide prevention efforts is not to get every veteran enrolled in VA care, but rather to equip communities to help veterans get the right care, whenever and wherever they need it," it added.

Foste has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result from working on a carrier's flight line all those years before retiring in 2002.

"It's a life and death situation every day, all day, and that's stressful," said Foste. It was his brother-in-law, Dave Williams, who created Joint Operation Mariposa in 2015 while volunteering as a representative for the VA in Sanders County. Foste said the idea of Joint Operation Mariposa is to get veterans help through therapy, education and advocacy. Foste said that many times military people need help adapting to civilian life when they get out of the service. He said the nearest veteran assistance facilities are more than 70 miles away, either in Kalispell or Missoula.