While some communities are banning the American flag under the guise of homeowner’s association rules, one community in Georgia has rallied around it.
90-year-old World War II veteran Frank Coleman was given a helping hand when it was time to retire his worn and tattered flag in the proper manner.
Local Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts performed the proper ceremony, and a neighbor gave Coleman a new flag to hang outside his home.
No knees taken in this neighborhood!
EMOTIONAL: 90 year old WWII veteran Frank Coleman could not replace his worn American flag. Local @boyscouts helped him perform proper flag ceremony MORE: @FOX5Atlanta @FoxNews https://t.co/ChUQwjjrNL pic.twitter.com/ImWlRGM6Vc
— Jaclyn Schultz FOX 5 (@jaclynFOX5ATL) November 26, 2017
According to Fox 5, Coleman enlisted in the Navy in 1944 and “even served as squadron commander in the Vietnam War.”
He also boasted that he too, was an Eagle Scout when he was younger.
“It’s a great honor to meet him,” said Eagle Scout Link Loeffler. “This is my first time doing [a flag ceremony] for a veteran.”
The respect and honor afforded the American flag in this community stands in stark contrast to another Georgia neighborhood which recently garnered headlines for saying the Stars and Stripes threaten the ‘theme of the community.’
Veterans unite, fight HOA’s claim that American flag threatens ‘theme of the community’ https://t.co/9LRJiCciaO @washtimes
— Jessica Chasmar (@JessicaChasmar) May 25, 2017
Air Force veteran Pete Rockett hammered the homeowner’s association for making such a claim.
“How can you say that the American flag detracts from the looks, the aesthetics of a community?” Rockett said during an interview with ‘Fox & Friends.’ “They treat it by limiting it to the holidays as if it’s a decoration — like Christmas decorations. You can put up your Christmas decorations on these days. The American flag is not a decoration. It’s a symbol, and it’s a symbol of a lot of things, to a lot of people. I fly it because I served. I fly it because a lot of my buddies served and lost their lives.”
That too, is why Coleman insists on a proper ceremony for retiring the flag. And he thanks all of the scouts who helped him make that happen.
“It’s breathtaking, it really is,” Coleman said. “I am very much honored.”
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