Flags Replaced With Swastikas in Wash.

Vandals burned dozens of small American flags that decorated veterans’ graves for Memorial Day and replaced many of them with hand-drawn swastikas, authorities said Monday.

Forty-six flag standards were found empty and another 33 flags were in charred tatters Sunday in the cemetery, authorities said. Swastikas drawn on paper appeared where 14 of the flags had been.

Members of the American Legion on this island off Washington’s northwest coast replaced the burned flags with new ones Sunday afternoon.

The vandals struck again on Memorial Day after a guard left at dawn, the San Juan County sheriff’s office said. This time, the vandals left 33 of the hand-drawn swastikas.

“This is not an act of free speech. This is a crime,” Sheriff Bill Cumming said in a statement released Monday afternoon.

Investigators believe there’s more than one culprit, based on the number of flags that were vandalized, Cumming said in a telephone interview. But authorities have no suspects, he said.

The sheriff said deputies were trying to lift fingerprints off what little physical evidence they were able to recover.

Flags fly for fallen soldiers

On Memorial Day, Americans pay tribute, recall sacrifices — and hit the road

By KAREN MATTHEWS - The Associated Press

Veterans and active soldiers unfurled a 90-by-100-foot U.S. flag as the nation’s top commander in the Middle East spoke to a Memorial Day crowd gathered in New York’s Central Park on Monday.

Navy Adm. William Fallon, commander of U.S. Central Command, said America should remember those the day honors. “Their sacrifice has enabled us to enjoy the things that we, I think in many cases, take for granted,” he said.

Across the nation, flags snapped in the wind over decorated gravestones as many paid tribute to their fallen soldiers.

Millions more kicked off summer with trips to beaches or their backyard grills. AAA estimated 38 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more during the weekend — up 1.7 percent from last year — even with gas averaging $3.20 a gallon for self-service regular.

In Washington, motorcycles driven by military veterans and their loved ones roared to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was the 20th year the group, Rolling Thunder, has taken to the streets in support of the U.S. military.

SOMBER PRESIDENT

President Bush spoke at nearby Arlington National Cemetery, honoring U.S. troops who have fought and died for freedom and expressing his resolve to succeed in the war in Iraq.

“From their deaths must come a world where the cruel dreams of tyrants and terrorists are frustrated and foiled — where our nation is more secure from attack, and where the gift of liberty is secured for millions who have never known it,” the president said.

‘GOING GOT TOUGH’

At Fort Bragg, N.C., the commanding general of the Army’s Green Berets said the troops who have died around the world were “soldiers we could count on when the going got tough.” Thirteen Green Berets who died during the past year were honored, as were 109 former Green Berets who died during the period.

“We always could count on our Special Forces brothers to be there with us, regardless of the odds against us,” Maj. Gen. Thomas R. Csrnko said.

A ROSE TO REMEMBER

At a Memorial Day ceremony at the Kansas Statehouse, Cindy Butler placed a rose beneath the state’s official wreath in honor of her son, Sgt. Jacob Butler, the first Fort Riley soldier killed in Iraq. She was joined by Joe Butler, Jacob’s twin brother.

Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2007

 Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day, 2007
A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

On Memorial Day, Americans pause with solemn gratitude and deep respect for all our fallen service men and women who have given their lives for our country and our freedom.

Through the generations, the courageous and selfless patriots of our Armed Forces have secured our liberty and borne its great and precious cost. When it has mattered most, patriots from every corner of our Nation have taken up arms to uphold the ideals that make our country a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire world. By answering the call of duty with valor and unrelenting determination, they have set a standard of courage and idealism that inspires us all.

All Americans honor the memory of the lives that have been lost in defense of our freedom. Our Nation mourns them, and their example of strength and perseverance gives us resolve. We are also thankful to those who have stood by our service men and women in times of war and times of peace.

Today, the members of our Armed Forces follow in a proud tradition handed down to them by the heroes that served before them. They are protecting our Nation, advancing the blessings of freedom, and laying the foundation for a more peaceful tomorrow through service that exemplifies the good and decent character of our Nation. America is grateful to all those who have worn the uniform of the Armed Forces of the United States, and we will never forget their sacrifices for our liberty.

On Memorial Day, we honor all those who have fallen by remembering their noble sacrifice for freedom. We also pray for our troops, their families, and for the peace we all seek.

In respect for their devotion to America, the Congress, by a joint resolution approved on May 11, 1950, as amended (64 Stat. 158), has requested the President to issue a proclamation calling on the people of the United States to observe each Memorial Day as a day of prayer for permanent peace and designating a period on that day when the people of the United States might unite in prayer. The Congress, by Public Law 106-579, has also designated the minute beginning at 3:00 p.m. local time on that day as a time for all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Memorial Day, May 28, 2007, as a day of prayer for permanent peace, and I designate the hour beginning in each locality at 11:00 a.m. of that day as a time to unite in prayer. I also ask all Americans to observe the National Moment of Remembrance beginning at 3:00 p.m., local time, on Memorial Day. I encourage the media to participate in these observances. I also request the Governors of the United States and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the appropriate officials of all units of government, to direct that the flag be flown at half staff until noon on this Memorial Day on all buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States, and in all areas under its jurisdiction and control. I also request the people of the United States to display the flag at half staff from their homes for the customary forenoon period.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

 http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070515-7.html

Vandalism Against Flags Hurts Us All - From the Times Record, Arkansas

We don’t often take note of vandalism. A little graffiti here, a couple of smashed windows there. It’s not good, and we don’t love it, but things happen. Unless they happen directly to you, it’s easy to shrug and go on, chalking it up to the price of doing business in a free society.

But the desecration of the flags on Garrison Avenue is a kick to the gut for all of us.

Some of us fly our flags all the time, and some are holiday flag fliers. But of all the days of the year, even more than Flag Day itself, the day to fly the flag with pride and humility and gratitude is Memorial Day. For years, Waldo Fisher, a Vietnam veteran, took his Darby Junior High School students to the U.S. National Cemetery in Fort Smith to decorate with flags, a tradition he continued even after he retired and even after his son fell in battle. We still feel a lump in the throat when we think of those respectful young people learning what duty and sacrifice really mean and what their cost can be.

In recent years, downtown Fort Smith, as part of its general spiffing up for the summer and for the Old Fort Days Rodeo Parade, and as sign of its commitment to patriotism, placed flags all down the avenue, bolted to parking meters, making downtown look festive and patriotic.

But sometime overnight Monday, an unknown vandal or vandals stole six flags and then bent or twisted the six-foot poles from which they hung.

The cost to replace the flags is not insignificant; at more than $500, it’s enough, say Fort Smith police, to make the crime a felony.

But there is more to it than that. Some bottom-feeder among us has disrespected those who gave all, disrespected our service members and veterans, and disrespected each of us

We hope the police solve this crime quickly and definitively. We hope that if you own a flag, you will fly it properly and often. And especially, we hope you will fly it for Memorial Day and for those who earned our right to be flying it.

AmericanFlags.com to Give Away One Million Flags in Honor of Memorial Day

AmericanFlags.com ( http://www.americanflags.com ) announced today that it will immediately begin offering its website visitors free American Flags in honor of Memorial Day. The popular website - known as the world’s largest retailer of flags, flagpoles and patriotic products - will give away up to one million three-foot by five-foot American flags to recognize and remember the heroic efforts of those who have lost their lives while heeding our nation’s call to service. These flags were previously priced at $19.99, plus shipping and handling.”Memorial Day is more than a summer kick-off. It is a time for us to honor and give thanks to the brave men and women of our Armed Forces who continue to risk their lives — sometimes paying the ultimate price — in order to ensure the peace, safety and prosperity of their fellow Americans,” said AmericanFlags.com President/CEO Jeffrey Reynolds. “Every American should fly the flag proudly on Memorial Day and every day as a visible symbol of our deep gratitude to those who have served, and are currently serving in the armed forces. By giving these flags away, we couldn’t make it any easier and we know they’ll be flown proudly in communities across our great nation,” Reynolds added.

AmericanFlags.com is owned and operated by Precision Marketing Solutions, Inc., a privately held corporation based in New York. Visitors can claim their free flags by visiting http://www.americanflags.com

Contact: Jeffrey Reynolds info@americanflags.com 1-877-7OFFICE

American Flags Meant to Honor the Dead are Trashed

 

The red, white and blue - tossed in the trash. Now, a local woman disturbed by what she found, wants something done.

Among branches and other debris, dozens and dozens of American flags were left in a pile at the Eagle Mills cemetery in the Town of Brunswick. Just two weeks away from Memorial Day, a widow of a veteran made the discovery, and she turned to us, for help, in hopes of getting some answers.

As NEWS10’s John Craig reports, it was quite a shock when she first found the tossed flags.

Marie Fremont could not believe her eyes.

“The flag doesn’t deserve the garbage pile,” says Marie.

Marie was at the cemetery on Sunday, Mother’s Day, to put new flowers at her mother’s grave. She also picked up, cleaned the area - kind of policed the area - taking the branches down toward the shed, and that is when she found the other American flags.

“And when I got up here and discovered all these flags, it just broke my heart because my country means a lot to me and the flag means a lot to me,” Marie says.

She has a nephew about to serve in the Middle East, and her husband, Lawrence, was in the Navy. He served in the Korean War, and in his later years, he used to go around and put up new flags in cemeteries as part of the American Legion.

An official with the Eagle Mills cemetery says new ones were put up in preparation for Memorial Day, but says the old ones were “inadvertently” trashed.

“There’s many places to go to - you could take them to any American Legion,” says Marie.

“The cemeteries that we take care of, that doesn’t happen,” senior color guard, Tommy Doin says.

The Veterans of Lansingburgh are preparing for their annual rite of disposal of the flag.

“We accept all the flags and we put them in the repository here,” says Bill Rosado, with the Veterans of Lansingburgh. “We have a city permit that we get and we burn ‘em. That is the way you dispose of a flag at all times.”

“That’s, that’s sad…really, really sad,” Doin says about the flags found at Eagle Mills cemetery.

We called the cemetery’s assistant superintendent Tuesday night, who first said this “was news to him.” When we talked to him about 90 minutes later, he said the groundskeeper admitted he got “side tracked” with the flags, and would make sure a veterans group was contacted today.

The Veterans of Lansingburgh also asked us to mention that they will replace any old flag for you, free of charge.

Flags not lowered

UTE, Iowa — Why is it we couldn’t manage to get the flags at half staff at of all places the Veterans Park on Water Street when ordered by Gov. Culver to do so across Iowa on Wednesday in respect to the fallen Alta, Iowa, soldier who was killed in Iraq?

Being a member of the Iowa Army National Guard here in Sioux City I felt it was quite disrespectful to me and all area members and their families. It really shows true ungratefulness or just laziness. — Shawn Goslar

Lower flags to honor fallen officers, group urges

 Tuesday, May 15, 2007

BY REGGIE SHEFFIELD

Of The Patriot-News

The Fraternal Order of Police wants you to lower your flag to half-staff today in recognition of National Peace Officers Memorial Day.

It’s only one of two annual observances when the flag is supposed to be flown at half-staff; the other time is Memorial Day, which honors fallen soldiers and sailors.

The failure to lower flags to half-staff has for years disappointed David M. Kling, the President of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 89 in Harrisburg.

“In the past few years as I traveled throughout the area on May 15, I was disappointed as I saw that the flags of our federal, state and local government buildings, veterans organizations, businesses and even police departments were not lowered to half-staff in honor of our fallen peace officers,” Kling said.

Lowering the flag on May 15 to honor fallen police officers was first authorized in 1994 by President Clinton. President Kennedy originally designated May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day in 1962.

Kling said President Bush last year issued a proclamation for Peace Officers Memorial Day and asked that all flags be flown at half-staff.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Ed Rendell said the governor ordered the flag to be lowered at the Capitol only.

Kling said he was disappointed Rendell did not order flags lowered statewide.

“For the governor to only order the flag at the Capitol to be lowered is almost an insult to the fallen officers,” Kling said. “It does not take a lot of energy to lower a flag to half-staff.”

Armed Forces Day - 5/19/07

Armed Forces Day is coming up Saturday, so fly your flag, thank a vet, and support our troops here and around the world.

Governors could order flags lowered for military deaths under House bill

 By Jim Abrams

ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:58 p.m. May 15, 2007

WASHINGTON – Governors could order federal facilities to lower their flags to honor fallen military troops under legislation passed by the House Tuesday.

Rep. Bart Stupak, a Democrat whose northern Michigan district has lost close to 20 people in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, said he sponsored the bill after unsuccessfully trying to persuade President Bush to issue an executive order on the issue.

 The bill passed 408-4 and now goes to the Senate, where Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., have introduced parallel legislation.

The measure would amend federal law with regard to the flying of the national flag at half-staff to allow a governor to require that federal facilities in the state lower their flags when a member of the armed forces from that state dies while on active duty. The mayor of the District of Columbia would have the same authority with respect to military personnel from the District.

The bill is named for Army Specialist Joseph P. Micks, a 22-year-old from Rapid River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan who was killed in Iraq last year.

Stupak said there were several instances in his state of federal facilities ignoring the governor’s request to lower flags, citing another case in his district where a Veterans Affairs hospital did not fly its flag at half-staff.

“This inconsistent, patchwork display of respect is particularly hurtful to rural communities where the funeral processions of fallen troops often travel through multiple communities, some with lowered flags, others without,” Stupak said.

He said he wrote the president a year ago urging him to issue an executive order requiring that federal facilities lower their flags upon the request of the governor.

“I don’t know their reasons” for not responding, he said, but noted that the sight of a flag flying at half-staff is “a reminder of the war and the cost we pay.”

More than 3,700 members of the U.S. military have died as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Stupak said he is also backing a bill that would require the military to fly the remains of those killed while on active duty to the closest civilian or military airport. He said people in rural districts such as his own sometimes have to drive 300 or 400 miles to a major airport to follow the hearse home.