A crowd of students and basketball players rose to their feet inside the gymnasium at the Mount Gilead High School during a game against Highland on Nov. 27 to dedicate the new motorized American flag display.
The game announcer said the flag, which hangs above center court, honors both local veteran Specialist 5th Class Robert T. Brooke and the many veterans in the community “as a symbol of enduring respect and gratitude.”
Brooke grew up on the family farm near Westpoint and is a 1963 graduate of Iberia High School. He excelled in basketball and baseball, graduating from Bowling Green State University in 1968. He enlisted soon after graduation in the U.S. Army where he specialized in the Nike Hercules missile defense. He was stationed in Redstone Arsenal in Alabama and later in South Korea…