I’ve just learned about the Freeport Flag Ladies. I’ll explain who they are in just a second, but a little back story first. My cousin, Brendan, is in the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division. As I write this, he’s winding his way back to Iraq after a short return home to the U.S. Last night my aunt, Brendan’s mom, sent an email of Brendan smiling, talking on a cell phone. It had been taken by the Freeport Flag Ladies after his arrival in Bangor, Maine. (Nex stop: Ireland. Then it’s off to Kuwait, then Iraq.)

From their website, I learned that the Freeport Flag Ladies are three women who start each Tuesday morning by standing on Main Street in Freeport, Maine, wearing our country’s colors and waving the American flag. As their website says, “We have held our ground in rain, sleet and snow with temperatures so cold that our fingers and toes were numb and with the summer sun beating down on us.”

But it gets better.

From their website: The Freeport Flag Ladies often make the long drive to Bangor to join the Maine Troop Greeters at Bangor International Airport and to Pease International in New Hampshire to meet troop flights. Depending upon weather and construction it takes between two and three hours each way. The Freeport Flag Ladies have greeted thousands of soldiers from all over this great nation who were being deployed, or returning home after long deployments.

In addition to greeting the troops, the Freeport Flag ladies will take as many photos as they can for their website, and offer their cell phones so departing soldiers can say “goodbye” before leaving the United States.