Monday, November 3, 2014

Vandalized

Today when on the way to Bend I looked over at the Redmond Memorial Cemetery (as I often do, to see Dad's flag) and could not see Dad's flag.. (my brother got permission to have an 8 ft metal pipe flagpole with a 3x5' flag on it at the head of his and Mom's stone) something was 'not right' so I drove into the cemetery..  NO!!!  the flagpole was bent halfway to the ground and the flag was missing.  The white part ( the part next to the blue field, it has a name) with brass groments held on with zip ties was still there.  The pole was vandalized and the flag was stolen.  ( the flag was cut pretty evenly) Went to the City Public Works department, they were glad to know but not much they could do.. did not even take my name.  Suggested I go to police but did not think they would be able to do much either.  BUT I felt that a police report needed to be filed. SO  I filed a report, even tho there may not be much that can be done, and I KNOW that, I feel that Dad deserves a report filed.... and maybe this will continue. Or happen to others, there should be a record. 
He went ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day with the 29th Division.  He does not deserve this, as does not one veteran!!
I do feel it was a kid,  they bent the pole to get at the flag.  Altho one just has to remove the pipe from the casing and lay on the ground to work on the flag.  I bet their parents did not know where they were, huh? Or what they were doing.  I hate to think an adult would do such a thing.... or maybe, hopefully, they would know better.

I feel bad...  I bent the pole back and got a new flag and all was well this afternoon when it was all fixed and looked good, all ready for Veteran's Day  11-11.  He passed away 11-12-2002.  We miss them so.

Take Care All. say hello to your loved ones

8 comments:

  1. I'm so sorry to hear about the vandalism, and can't imagine anyone, even a kid, thinking it was a clever thing to do. I'm glad you reported it.

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  2. I'm sorry to hear about the vandalism. not just disrespectful, but no respect at all!! As a retired funeral director, I'm sad to say I saw way to much of that in the seven cemeteries in our district. I'm glad to hear the flag is flying again and I'm glad to hear you did file a police report.

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  3. It is just so sad and incomprehensible to me that vandalism for no reason is such a "thing". I just don't get it. So very sorry about your flag and very happy that you were able to get another one up again for your Dad. Not many of these guys around to honor any more, they were a special breed.

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  4. I'm so sorry this has happened. there seems to be no respect left anywhere. I hope they have dreams of things chasing them from the cemetery creeps.

    Glad you filed a report.

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  5. That is awful news. I just don't know who would steal a flag from a veteran's grave. So sorry, Loree!




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  6. How could someone possibly want to do that or think it was fun or funny? I have to think this was unsupervised teenagers. Parents seem to give up after kids are about 10. No wonder everything is locked up and has a security system. Are cemeteries next?

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  7. You know, kids do these stupid things and never think about how their actions affect the people they are stealing from and/or vandalizing. It's such a terrible thing to do. I'm so glad you noticed and were able to repair the pole and replace the flag. :)

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  8. There sure seems to be a lot of, dare I say, worthless and stupid people in this world. So sorry you had to deal with thee results of their stupidity.

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