BRISTOL — Paul L. Imbruglia felt a wave of relief and pride wash over him as he drove an Army Jeep toward his bunker in the aftermath of an enemy attack on his unit’s outpost, about 25 miles south of Saigon during the Vietnam War.

Bouncing along the dirt road, it was a good feeling to see his comrades raising the American flag aloft on that day in 1968, says Imbruglia, of Providence.

His memory of that particular flag and its colors — dark blue and red-and-white standing in sharp contrast to the earthy tones of Vietnam — is indelible.

Imbruglia was among about 100 former military personnel who gathered at the Rhode Island Veterans Home on Sunday to pay tribute to the flag. The event was held in advance of Flag Day, which is Tuesday.

A crowd of veterans, many of them in wheelchairs, assembled in a meeting hall at the facility and absorbed a presentation from the Rhode Island State Elks Association.

Officially, Flag Day is on June 14. It falls on the anniversary of June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the United States’ flag.

But, on Sunday, Elks leaders and other Rhode Islanders devoted some of their weekend time to flag ceremonies.

In Charlestown, 12-year-old Cody Clarkin hosted a ceremony to rededicate the flagpole at Ninigret Park, a site that Clarkin has spruced up over the past 18 months.

A rifle team from the Rhode Island National Guard was on hand to fire three volleys of shots to honor the flag and deceased veterans.

At the Veterans Home in Bristol, the ceremony was indoors, with no live firing.

The focal point was an array of banners, from today’s U.S. flag to flags flown during other eras, including the Rattlesnake Flag emblazoned with the words “Don’t Tread on Me” and the Pinetree Flag, also flown prior to the American Revolution.

Of course, such Flag Day activities can trigger emotional memories like the one that has stayed with Imbruglia since the Vietnam War.

James Tracy, 67, of Barrington, is reminded of one of his duties during his time in the Air Force in the 1960s: As a member of a color guard, he was involved with presenting flags to the widows of fallen airmen at the Air Force base in Tampa, Fla.

Bill Reynolds, a Navy veteran and retired Providence firefighter who goes by the name “Fireman Bill,” says he is moved when he sees the flag lowered at sunset and he hears taps playing.

“The sound and the stillness and the quiet,” says Reynolds, who attended the Bristol ceremony. “It reminds you of all the men and women who have died.”

Like Imbruglia, the keynote speaker at the flag ceremony in Bristol has his own unforgettable memory of the flag.

Capt. Neil R. Parrot says he was serving on a destroyer in the Persian Gulf the day terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in 2001.

“We couldn’t comprehend what had just happened in our own country,” says Parrot, referring to the sailors’ early reaction to the first news reports.

Later that day, or the next, they all gathered to salute the flag, says Parrot, who is now the commanding officer of the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officers’ School.

Parrot recalls looking at the banner during that ceremony. At that time, he and the men on his ship knew they were at war.