GUILDERLAND — Weathered by the same desert sun as the minarets of Fallujah’s mosques, a Pennsylvania-made flag has come home to roost.

One Marine handed the flag to another during the Sunday ceremony — George Roods, who served in Vietnam, passed the mournful black POW-MIA flag to Frank English, who served in Korea.

“It really came full circle for us,” said Suzi Granger of all the threads that tied the event together.  Granger is the president and founder of the Albany chapter of Rolling Thunder Inc. — an organization that lobbies for the return of prisoners of war and those who are missing in action.

The group, which usually gives three or four flags a year, chose the Guilderland Fire Department because of its support for soldiers and Rolling Thunder, Granger said.  For three of the four years since the Freedom Run started, the department has helped the group of motorcyclists on their tour of the area to honor fallen veterans.

“We don’t just give away flags,” Granger said, explaining that each flag is sent to Iraq, where it is flown during a mission and a certificate is made by the squadron.  Veterans can see that there is a friendly place, which will offer support when a flag is flown, she said.

English’s family is a home to veterans.  Aside from himself, five of his nine children have served, he said.

“I like the camaraderie, I like the spirit,” he said of the Marines.  He remains friends with a man he met at boot camp in 1952, he said.  Two of his children joined the Navy and three joined the Air Force — from which his father retired after 20 years, English said.

Of having a child choose the Marines, he said with a smile in his voice, “I wouldn’t have minded.”