The public is invited to a flag ceremony honoring the United States’ 250th anniversary, to be held at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 14.

The ceremony, featuring the raising of a flag created for America’s semiquincentennial, will be held at the Veterans Memorial Building, 1626 Willamette St. in Eugene. 

“It’s a celebration of three flags,” said Larry Campbell of American Legion Post 3, one of the organizers of the event. along with Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 293. By the event’s end, three flags will be flying from the pole outside the building — the U.S. flag at the top, a flag honoring service members who were prisoners of war or who are missing in action and, finally, the flag marking America’s 250th anniversary.

The event is intended not just to introduce the 250th anniversary flag, Campbell said, but also to pay tribute to the other two. To that end, the ceremony begins with the raising of the American flag, including information about Old Glory and singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” 

Then, the MIA-POW flag will be added as speakers share background information about two Oregon veterans — William W. Horn, an Army sergeant from Linn County who died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, and Robert Lee Allen, a Navy petty officer third class from Roseburg, who went missing during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The program also will feature a display offering more information about American POWs and missing service members.

The new America 250 flag will be added to the flagpole last, below the other two.

Campbell said the ceremony should last about 30 minutes. It is free to attend, and sandwiches will be served afterward.