PORT ANGELES — A flag once owned by a World War II veteran now flies at the Captain Joseph House in Port Angeles.
On Memorial Day, the children of Walter Edwin Johnson, a Port Angeles resident who had died at just over 100 years old in 2021, donated a U.S. Flag that their father had been given.
Walter Johnson, a Navy veteran, and Norris Johnson, an Army veteran, raised the flag up the pole at the house at 1108 S. Oak St. in Port Angeles during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring those who have died in combat and Gold Star families.
A special wreath was laid by Gold Star mother Patti Nowaczyk for her son SSG David P. Nowaczyk, Army, who died in Afghanistan on April 15, 2012, at the age of 32.
Retired General Richard Hearney, who lives in Port Angeles, provided the welcome. His son was killed in Desert Storm, said Betsy Reed Schultz, executive director of the Captain Joseph House Foundation.
Cory and Rena Hall of Sequim also were among the Gold Star families. Their son, Logan, died July 2018 in Afghanistan, Schultz said.
Ground was broken for the facility in 2014. Schultz had purchased the Tudor-style bed-and-breakfast built in 1910 in 2001.
Two months later, terrorists struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Her only child enlisted in the Army after 9/11. He served two tours in Iraq, and, as captain, was four months into his Afghanistan assignment when he was killed on May 29, 2011. He was 36.
Schultz formed the Captain Joseph House Foundation to turn the bed-and-breakfast into a respite center for families mourning loved ones who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed work on the place, Schultz has said; the continuing pandemic also has delayed bringing in families from all over the nation.
