Military spouse presents flag from ISIS mission to KSU co-workers

CHAMPION

This time last year was difficult for Maribeth Eckenrode, a financial-aid specialist at Kent State University at Trumbull.

Her husband, Master Sgt. Troy Eckenrode, an Air Force Reservist with the 910th Airlift Wing of the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, was on a military deployment.

For Maribeth, it meant constant worry and marking a wedding anniversary, birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s without her husband at home.

And it meant managing everything on “the home front,” such as fallen trees, flooded basements, lawn care and snow removal.

Through it all, Maribeth’s co-workers in the Enrollment Management and Student Services department “were ready to support me,” she said.

It’s a military tradition to fly a flag for special people to recognize their support, she explained Wednesday.

So when she and Troy discussed who she would like an American flag flown for, “there was no doubt that the staff at EMSS would receive one,” she said.

At a ceremony Wednesday, university officials unveiled an American flag recently mounted on a huge wall in the EMSS Department that flew in a C-130 on Nov. 5, 2016, during a combat mission against ISIS forces in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Read more about the tribute in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.