until several weeks after the break-in,
when he was getting organized for an
annual memorial rifle shoot honor-
ing Jackson, that Marceau realized the
neatly folded flag was gone.
“I was very upset—in a rage,” he
told Fox & Friends, “because I lost it.”
Marceau reached out to friends and
family, asking them to search for the
flag wherever they could—at pawn-
shops, secondhand stores, even the
local Goodwill. Nothing. He went to
the rifle memorial, on April 21, with-
out the flag.
In a last-ditch effort, the heart-
broken father took to Facebook.
“Would appreciate it if all my friends
could share this note. This American
flag was stolen out of my truck,” he
wrote, including a photo of the flag.
“Any information would be great. No
questions asked.”
By the next morning, on May 5, his
post had been shared around 2,000
times. By May 7, there were around
40,000 reposts. “I couldn’t believe it,”
says Marceau. “There were so many
comments I couldn’t keep up.” Un-
fortunately, the flag was still nowhere
to be found.
Soon enough, there were other flags.
A 9/11 firefighter sent one to Marceau
signed by dozens of his colleagues,
many of whom had responded at the
World Trade Center. A Special Forces
sergeant major sent a flag he’d taken
with him on missions around the
world, from Iwo Jima to Afghanistan.
Marceau, a retired Marine himself
and the son and grandson of veterans,
cherished these gifts while continuing
to pray for the return of Jackson’s flag.
Still waiting for those prayers to
be answered, Marceau went about
his routine as normal. On Tuesday,
July 3, he visited his son’s grave, just
as he has every Tuesday since Jackson
was buried. “It’s religion,” he says. “It’s
my time to meditate and pray and get
ready for the week.”When he got to Jackson’s grave that
morning, there was something there:
a flag. Marceau didn’t let himself get
too excited. People had gifted him so
many flags in the weeks prior that he
figured this was just another keepsake
that had belonged to someone else.
But when he got closer, he noticed the
signatures—black ink on each of the
white stripes. This was his son’s flag.
“It was pretty amazing,” he says.
There was also some mystery. Who-
ever had returned the flag left no note,
and as of yet, no one has stepped for-
ward to say he or she returned it. Did
the thief bring it back? Did a Good
Samaritan find it in a thrift shop?
Marceau has decided not to speculate.
“For me, it’s just a miracle,” he says.
“It’s God. That’s who put it there.”“I WAS VERY UPSET—
IN A RAGE,”
MARCEAU SAID,
“BECAUSE I LOST IT.”rd.com 57