The vets arrived around 5 p.m. Monday evening, hundreds of them all outfitted in the same camouflaged Kiss tour T-shirts. And for more than two hours they prepared and practiced unfurling a behemoth American flag, one that easily covered a football field and took up a big chunk of real estate on Casino del Sol's eight-acre Sewailo Golf Course driving range.
The vets ranged in age from Vietnam era soldiers to Gulf War and Afghanistan fighters from all branches of the military. They came from throughout Southern Arizoan and a few from the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, brought together to be part of Mark Stroman's big patriotic gesture, conceived to kick off glam rockers Kiss' "Freedom to Rock" tour Monday in Tucson.
Initially the band and Stroman, Kiss' longtime senior VP of marketing, had hoped the flag ceremony would set some sort of Guiness Book of World Records notch. But at 160-feet by 300-feet, the flag fell short of the biggest ever record — 505 by 225.
And Stroman was thanking his stars and stripes that the Tucson ceremony was not going to be repeated at the band's 39 other stops on its "Freedom to Rock" tour, which kicked off Monday night at the AVA at Casino del Sol.
The vets spent the first half of their time lining up in four giant rows of volunteers charged with holding the flag once a group of several dozen had marched it down the driving range until it was fully unfurled.
The group did a flawless practice run just before 7 p.m. — the time they were told the members of Kiss including Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley were expected in full Kiss costumes and makeup. At 10 minutes past 7, the group did the final for real unfurling and the other volunteers on all sides of the flag held onto handles built into the red, white and blue material. Once they got it steady, they waited. And waited.
Just past 7:30, as the sun had started to sink behind the mountain range circling Sewailo's sloping green lawn, a van with the four musicians arrived. The quartet waved to the fans lining the desert-choked hills and the volunteers, who had held on for dear life at one point when the wind picked up and lifted the giant flag until it formed a gigantic air bubble.
A blast of fireworks shot up as a drone zipped by overhead, capturing the whole event on video to be used for Kiss tour marketing. And then as quickly as they had arrived the band disappeared, heading to the AVA to make their 8 p.m. concert date. (Their show actually didn't get started until after 9 p.m., once a Los Angeles rock trio finished its opening set.)
Kiss teamed up with the D.C.-based veterans advocacy group Hiring Our Heroes, a group that works to find veterans and their spouses jobs, and Vet Tix, an organization that provides free or discounted concert and sporting events tickets to military personnel and their families.
Part of Monday's flag ceremony included the introduction of Army Lt. Col. Mellorya Crawford as the first Kiss "Roadie for a Day." Crawford, an 18-year Army veteran stationed the last six years at Fort Huachuca, said she's sort of a Kiss fan — she grew up with their music in the early 1980s — but was excited that the group selected a woman as the tour's first roadie. It was her chance to be a role model for women in the military and for black women overall.
Crawford's duties Monday included working with the band backstage and helping to coordinate the flag ceremony.
Roadie for A Day is coordinated by Hiring Our Heroes.
