The rows of flags on Pioneer Plaza in Roswell carry a deep personal meaning for T.J. Conyers, 38, whose daughter is an active-duty Army specialist.
“This really touches my heart, just to see how much we are here to support those that are fighting for our freedoms and have fought for our freedoms,” Conyers said.
Conyers was one of 14 volunteers who turned out in the plaza in downtown Roswell on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 4, to plant more than 300 flags in the ground as part of a “field of honor” in observance of both Labor Day and the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
This year’s 9/11 anniversary is on Friday.
A field of honor is a large display of flags put out in honor of veterans and active duty military. The field of honor, temporarily erected on Pioneer Plaza, was organized by America 250 Roswell, NM, a committee formed earlier this year to organize local Fourth of July festivities in observance of the 250th birthday of the United States.
“It’s just to celebrate America,” said Juliana Halverson, a member of the committee who also represents Ward 2 on the Roswell City Council.
The group began putting the flags out on the Plaza on federal patriotic holidays starting in February 2026, on Presidents Day. The group put up the field of honor again on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July and intends to do the same for Veterans Day in November.
America 250 Roswell, NM came up with the idea for the field of honor earlier this year.
“So when we started with the committee, the first few meetings we had, we said, what can we do to celebrate America,” Halverson said.
Since then, volunteers have come out to the plaza days before a given holiday to plant the flags, bought with donations from community members and businesses. With metal stakes they create holes in the ground where the 12-inch by 18-inch flags are placed. A local Scout Troop planted 40 larger flags on the plaza the day before.
Alex Ross | Roswell Tribune
About 60 of the flags had small pieces attached to them with the names of veterans, active-duty military members or civilians, living or dead. Halverson said a person can sponsor a flag at no cost and place the name of someone on it. She sponsored a flag and chose to put the name of her 4-year-old grandson Henry Brittelle on it.
The Plaza will be cleared of the flags by the city’s Parks and Recreations Department after the 9/11 anniversary with flags returned to the organizers.
Many of the volunteers who turned out to plant the flags were employees of Pioneer Bank, which has a community service program.
“We’re a community bank, so we like to give back to our community,” said bank employee Nuvia Duran, 23.
The field of honor also brings back memories for those who lived through the 9/11 attacks, when four commercial planes were hijacked by terrorists and crashed: two into the World Trade Center in New York City, one into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and a fourth that went down in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In all, 2,977 people died, according to the website of the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. Those included 441 first responders, the most deaths of first responders on a single day in American history.
Some of the volunteers, such as Duran, were too young to remember that day. She only learned of the attacks from history lessons in school and old news coverage re-aired each year on the anniversary.
Conyers, who was in middle school at the time, recalled watching news coverage of the attacks from her classroom.
“It was really sad to see the news stories and how all the families around, not just in New York or in D.C., how the whole world was affected by what happened on our soil,” Conyers said.
