Remembering victims
New names on flag join list of those killed in terrorist acts

Holland, 33, and two colleagues died in an ambush nearly three years ago in Karbala, Iraq. The attorney was helping organize women's rights groups and local governments.

Booker, 49, was the only American killed when Chechen rebels took over a Russian theater four years ago. The electrician was with his fiancée and her daughter. The three had decided to see a play at the theater on a whim.

Tuttle lived in Wichita at the time of the kidnapping, and remembers watching the story of the Burnhams on the news. She began stitching his square Thursday.

"It's a therapeutic thing,” she said. "We find it's a way of participating and becoming closer to the people who have had these kind of losses. You become more involved. You're not just reading it in the newspaper.”

Tuttle, who runs a cross-stitch design business from her home, donated her design skills to help create the new squares.

Millie Fisher of Oklahoma City quickly stitched the yellow letters of Joseph Arguelles' name under the green symbol OIF, which stands for Operation Iraqi Freedom. Arguelles, 44, of Florida was a contract worker in Iraq who died from small arms fire.

Fisher and five others gathered Thursday at the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism to start stitching some of the new squares.

"It's something we can do to help out,” Fisher said, sliding her needle artfully through the red fabric.

One of the sewers, Kathye Michaelis of Oklahoma City, said the flag reminds her of the Vietnam wall in Washington. Both memorials list every single name.

"This is a way to make people remember,” she said, looking up from her square. "And I think it's important for people to remember. I know they're not all military people, but they all paid a price.”

Beverly Jennings, who owns Cross Stitch Haven at SW 89 and Western, came Thursday to create a square. She donated fabric and other supplies for the flag update. The designs are fairly simple, Jennings said, and even novice stitchers can follow the pattern.

"I feel like it's kind of an honor to be associated with something like this,” Jennings said.

Contributing to something so large is a powerful experience, said Butler, who herself stitched one of the original squares. When she started sewing, she said, she looked up as much information as she could about the man whose name she had. He was James Patrick, a father-to-be who died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

"You just have to remember people,” Butler said. The flag, she said, is the perfect way to do that: "Their name is written down somewhere. It's permanent.”