Saturday morning, Northside High School JROTC cadets marched in to Autumnfield of Belhaven, an assisted living facility. They were there to perform a solemn ceremony: the refolding of an American flag. But this ceremony was especially moving for one Beaufort County family because the two cadets folding and presenting the flag were the great-grandchildren of the flag’s owner, a man they’ve never met.

J. Franklin Whitley was a World War II veteran, who was on a ship in the Pacific Ocean when America dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Japan surrendered. He died in 1957 and the flag that decorated his coffin then has remained in the family.

“My mother has had it all these years,” said Jeannie Benson. “But somewhere along the way it got out of the fold. I mentioned it to my granddaughter that it wasn’t folded right.”

Her granddaughter, Rachel Russ, Northside High School JROTC mission support NCO, mentioned it to her sergeant, Sgt. Charlie Woolard. From there it was decided a flag-folding ceremony would be held and the flag would be presented to Rachel Whitley Manning, Whitley’s widow, by her great-granddaughter, Rachel, and great-grandson, Northside’s JROTC Squadron Commander Dale Russ.

In the common room of Autumnfield, Dale and Rachel first unfolded the flag then folded it as the meaning of each fold was read aloud to the gathered crowd. Trumpeters played Taps, the drill team performed a silent 21-gun salute and JRTOC member Norvia Jennette sang the National Anthem.

“It was a really impressive ceremony,” Benson said.

It was also a very emotional ceremony, when Dale knelt and presented the flag to his great-grandmother.

“They never knew him,” said Nancy Russ, Rachel and Dale’s mother. “The flag they folded had 48 stars — I think it really hit home. To see the flag they’re holding had 48 stars. No one really thinks about how old that flag is and how it’s made totally different.”

“For both of them, I could see a lot of emotion. From all of the cadets there,” Russ said. “Folding the flag that was on their great-grandfather’s coffin was really emotional.”

Russ went on to say that JRTOC has “been a wonderful program for our family.”