As the clock struck noon Saturday, military veteran Joe Higdon carefully unfolded an American flag and saluted once it was hoisted atop its pole, ceremonially opening the sharp, new headquarters of one of the state’s largest nonprofits supporting U.S. troops.

Mr. Higdon, who served in the Navy during the Vietnam War era and later in the Army, was one of several dozen veterans who gathered at Operation Troop Appreciation’s events center at 2017 Pennsylvania Ave. in West Mifflin

OTA founder Kristen Holloway, whose husband served in the military, started the organization in 2004 as a way to send clothes to a Pennsylvania National Guard platoon serving in Iraq.

She expanded her mission in 2014 to support not only deployed soldiers, but returning veterans, creating “Welcome Home” kits with b

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