All eight flags that were stolen from the Newberry Veterans Memorial in August were replaced last week after U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack traveled to Newberry to deliver new ones. 

After the flags were stolen, Cammack announced that her office would work with the Department of Defense to provide the new flags, which included a United States flag, a POW/MIA flag and one for each branch of the military. 

City Manager Jordan Marlowe told Mainstreet that although replacement flags have been flying in place of the stolen ones, the new flags from Cammack are the same quality and official brand as those flying at the state level.  

He said the flags will be raised during the city’s Veterans Day ceremony planned for Nov. 11 at the memorial, which opened on Memorial Day. 

“Honored to stand with Newberry’s veterans and city leaders to replace the stolen American and service branch flags at the Veterans Memorial in Lois Forte Park,” Cammack posted to Facebook on Sept. 24. “Our flag represents freedom, sacrifice and unity, and now it flies high once again over this sacred place of remembrance.” 

Marlowe said the original flags were stolen during a two-day window when the memorial was without cameras because new ones were getting installed. He said the cameras are up and running and a $3,500 reward still stands for any information that could lead to an arrest of the thieves. 

The city’s original veterans monument was also installed at the memorial last week.  

The monument has stood at the municipal building downtown since Newberry’s first African American mayor, Freddie Warmack, spearheaded the effort to construct it in the 1980s and the community raised the money for it. 

Marlowe said a challenging installation put moving the monument to the new memorial behind schedule, but it had always been part of the plan. 

“That monument is a piece of Newberry’s history,” he said. “We wanted it to enhance the new memorial.”