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The Water Cooler
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US Flag Code Violations
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<blockquote data-quote="JRSherman" data-source="post: 1295635" data-attributes="member: 13432"><p>I stopped feeling lightly about the only symbol left of our nation after three different things happened to me. </p><p></p><p>The first was an old AF pilot that flew missions throughout WW2 and Korea. Everybody around our small town knew him as Sarge Carney, and I feel terrible right now that I can't remember his first name. He WAS the Flag "Guardian" for our town. He was the old man raising and lowering the Flag at the Courthouse each day. If one was being flown or hung incorrectly, and he found out about it, it wouldn't be a day before he was informing the owner in a nice and mentor-like manner.</p><p></p><p>I didn't get to know him as well as I'd have liked anyway, as I was a punk-a$$ kid about the time he was stopping by my mom's boot repair shop, and when I did start caring, he had gotten Alzheimer's in a really bad way, really fast. Rest in Peace on your final flight into the Wild Blue Yonder Sarge!</p><p></p><p></p><p>The second thing that happened to me was when I had to start performing Colors at the last place I worked in the Navy. As a nuke I hadn't had to do it before, but when I switched to shore duty we all had our turn to take. It was really a combination, because that was also when I started relic hunting for Civil War items as well.</p><p></p><p>I didn't feel it so much in the morning, raising the Flag briskly. In the evening, though, when Taps is played and you have to take your time lowering the Flag ceremoniously, it gave me a lot of time to think about the connection I was sharing with the men I was retrieving lost objects from. </p><p></p><p>The third thing that happened to me was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery when my wife and I visited our Capitol. I will never feel the same about a military death again. You can tell right there whether or not you love this country, because if you want to argue through whether or not we needed to be in any of the wars this country has endured, and feel nothing towards the men that had little to no choice where they died, standing in that most vast of cemeteries, then I guess I will dismiss you as my countryman.</p><p></p><p>Blame the War, don't blame the Warrior.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: Red">If you've read nothing else of my post, this is what I realized.</span></p><p></p><p>Men died for <em>this</em> Flag. Men gave their last breaths saving <em>this</em> Flag from foreign evils in places they didn't return from. Men bled their last drops of blood preventing <em>this</em> Flag from falling and touching the ground.</p><p></p><p>This collection of different colored cloths and threads, sewn together and attached to pipe-flag poles, wooden staffs, radio masts, or whatever they could improvise in their war torn location, was what gave men glimmers of hope that they might be in a safer spot than where they just marched from.</p><p></p><p>If you have to become so freedom consumed that you cannot retain ceremony and supreme dignity for one such item out of all the millions of items that exist, what cost are you paying? I think we are in that checkout line right now, and the cashier is about to ring up a total we are not prepared for. . .</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JRSherman, post: 1295635, member: 13432"] I stopped feeling lightly about the only symbol left of our nation after three different things happened to me. The first was an old AF pilot that flew missions throughout WW2 and Korea. Everybody around our small town knew him as Sarge Carney, and I feel terrible right now that I can't remember his first name. He WAS the Flag "Guardian" for our town. He was the old man raising and lowering the Flag at the Courthouse each day. If one was being flown or hung incorrectly, and he found out about it, it wouldn't be a day before he was informing the owner in a nice and mentor-like manner. I didn't get to know him as well as I'd have liked anyway, as I was a punk-a$$ kid about the time he was stopping by my mom's boot repair shop, and when I did start caring, he had gotten Alzheimer's in a really bad way, really fast. Rest in Peace on your final flight into the Wild Blue Yonder Sarge! The second thing that happened to me was when I had to start performing Colors at the last place I worked in the Navy. As a nuke I hadn't had to do it before, but when I switched to shore duty we all had our turn to take. It was really a combination, because that was also when I started relic hunting for Civil War items as well. I didn't feel it so much in the morning, raising the Flag briskly. In the evening, though, when Taps is played and you have to take your time lowering the Flag ceremoniously, it gave me a lot of time to think about the connection I was sharing with the men I was retrieving lost objects from. The third thing that happened to me was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery when my wife and I visited our Capitol. I will never feel the same about a military death again. You can tell right there whether or not you love this country, because if you want to argue through whether or not we needed to be in any of the wars this country has endured, and feel nothing towards the men that had little to no choice where they died, standing in that most vast of cemeteries, then I guess I will dismiss you as my countryman. Blame the War, don't blame the Warrior. [COLOR="Red"]If you've read nothing else of my post, this is what I realized.[/COLOR] Men died for [I]this[/I] Flag. Men gave their last breaths saving [I]this[/I] Flag from foreign evils in places they didn't return from. Men bled their last drops of blood preventing [I]this[/I] Flag from falling and touching the ground. This collection of different colored cloths and threads, sewn together and attached to pipe-flag poles, wooden staffs, radio masts, or whatever they could improvise in their war torn location, was what gave men glimmers of hope that they might be in a safer spot than where they just marched from. If you have to become so freedom consumed that you cannot retain ceremony and supreme dignity for one such item out of all the millions of items that exist, what cost are you paying? I think we are in that checkout line right now, and the cashier is about to ring up a total we are not prepared for. . . [/QUOTE]
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