Oklahoma town awash in patriotism

CUSTER CITY, Okla. -- Residents dug out their Fourth of July clothes and covered the town with red, white and blue. The mother of a soldier in Kuwait belted out "God Bless America" as American flags waved in the breeze.

Several hundred people in this small western Oklahoma town gathered Tuesday on Main Street for a rally in support of troops heading toward a possible war in Iraq.

"This isn't about whether we should be in the Middle East or whether we shouldn't," said Vicki Fergason, who was pinning yellow ribbons on people's coats. "It's about coming together to support our service people and their families. They are under so much stress."

Flags stuck out of the red dirt lining the curvy road into Custer City, named after the Seventh Cavalry general who slaughtered a Cheyenne village just down the road. Residents tied yellow ribbons on nearly every fence post, tree and street sign in town. Yellow daffodils sprouted from almost every pot.

"For or against the war, we're here for our guys," said Betty Hoffman, who has lived in Custer County all of her 76 years.

The inspiration for the rally came from Justin Covey, a homegrown boy who flies a Black Hawk helicopter with the 101st Airborne Division. Covey, son of state Rep. James Covey of Custer City, was deployed to Kuwait last week.

The lawmaker, wearing a star-spangled tie, read a proclamation from Gov. Brad Henry making it official: Tuesday was "Custer County Yellow Ribbon Rally Day." His wife, Yvonne, waved her arm in the air as she sang, telling anyone with a flag to do the same.

Rally organizer Robin Hoffman went to school with Justin Covey and often talks to Covey's mother.

"I could hear the fear in her voice every time I talked to her," Hoffman said. "I knew we had to do something."

So with a week to plan, Hoffman enlisted some volunteers, ordered a choir with members from every town in the county and spread the word. Children and adults made signs to hang around town, someone put up a banner that said "Custer County Supports Our Troops" on the side of an old brick building, and some hung pictures of loved ones fighting the war on terrorism.

"Something ought to be done about it, but I wish we had more backing," said F.H. Fulton, a veteran. "France is just dragging their feet. We ought to forget them."

Lee Hight, also a veteran, said America's latest war started with the Sept. 11 attacks. "I think we've been in it for quite some time and it's time to start shooting back," he said.

Norman Lamb, Oklahoma's secretary of veteran affairs, worked the crowd into cheers by calling Saddam Hussein a tyrant.

"He wants to destroy America," Lamb said. "He hates you because you're an American."

Mayor Tony Littleton, speaking from the bed of the red, white and blue-decorated truck trailer, said the yellow ribbons will remain around town until the soldiers' "triumphant return."

Custer City is named for Gen. George Armstrong Custer, whose Seventh Cavalry slaughtered 103 Cheyenne Indians near the banks of the nearby Washita River in November 1868. Custer met his own violent end eight years later when the Seventh Cavalry was ambushed by thousands of Cheyenne, Lakota and Arapaho warriors at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

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