Veterans replace broken flags - Binghamton, NY

 By John Hill
Press & Sun-Bulletin

JOHNSON CITY –Vandals broke hundreds of American flags at Floral Park Cemetery this week, and Dick Slate has a car full of them to prove it.

“I just can’t believe … anybody would want to do it,” said Slate, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy, and a member of Johnson City Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2332.

On Wednesday, the 63rd anniversary of D-Day, flags with broken wooden stems filled the truck and a large cardboard box in the backseat of Slate’s green Pontiac.

Each year in the week before Memorial Day, members of the VFW place new flags at the graves of veterans buried in the Johnson City cemetery, Slate said.

About six members revisited the graves Wednesday to replace the broken flags with new ones. The group obtains the flags from Broome County, said Slate.

The veterans found broken flags across the entire cemetery — from the front, where soldiers from the Civil War are buried, to the back, where more recently dead veterans lie. Virtually every flag in the cemetery was snapped, Slate said.

Doug Moore, a veteran from Johnson City, was still finding broken flags around 7 p.m., after hundreds had already been replaced.

“Your immediate feeling is not mad,” said Moore, of Johnson City, who served in the Navy. “It’s sad — it’s just sad.”

Johnson City police are looking into the incident, which occurred sometime this week. Police also said they would step up patrols in the cemetery.

Anyone with information about the broken flags can call the Johnson City Police Department at 729-9321.