A 'perfect tribute'
Flag honoring fallen marine retired
After the Veterans Day crowd dispersed in downtown Waukegan on Wednesday, another much smaller but no less solemn ceremony was held at Waukegan High School's Washington Campus, home of the Alternative Optional Educational Center.
A flag first raised on Veterans Day 2008 in honor of Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Medlicott, a former AOEC student, was retired.
Medlicott was 21 when he died Aug. 25, 2007, of wounds inflicted during combat in Iraq's Al Anbar province. He attended AOEC during his freshman and sophomore years and once urged school administrators to replace a flag on the school's flag pole because it was old and tattered, said his father, Bart Medlicott, who directs Waukegan High School's student orchestra.
Medlicott said his son was "a patriot at heart."
The school installed a new flag pole on Nov. 11, 2008, dedicating it to Medlicott's memory.
"He loved the flag," Bart Medlicott told the Lake County News-Sun a year ago. "It's the perfect tribute."
