90 Yr old Veteran Forced to take down Flag

[chloe]

WWII vet fights homeowners group over Va. flagpole

RICHMOND, Va. — One of the nation's oldest Medal of Honor winners was back in the fight Thursday, this time against a neighborhood association that wants him to take down a front-yard flagpole.

Supporters, including a U.S. senator, have been falling in behind 90-year-old retired Army Col. Van T. Barfoot, a World War II veteran awarded the lofty Congressional honor for actions including standing up to three German tanks with a bazooka and stopping their advance.

The Sussex Square homeowners' association says the flagpole violates the neighborhood's aesthetic guidelines and ordered him to remove it by 5 p.m. Friday or face a lawsuit. The group has said Barfoot can display the flag, as long as it's in a way that conforms with association rules, such as from a pole mounted on the front of the house.

"This is not about the American flag. This is about a flagpole," the association said in a statement.

Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., is among those offering to help break the impasse, Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said. Warner and the war hero became acquainted at veterans' events when Warner was Virginia's governor from 2002-06. Others are backing Barfoot on the Internet, including with a Facebook page.

Barfoot won the Medal of Honor for actions while his platoon was under German assault near Carano, Italy, in May 1944. The award citation says Barfoot, then a 2nd lieutenant, crept up alone on German machine gun nests, killing and capturing enemy troops in three of them, stopped their three-tank advance and helped two seriously wounded comrades back to safety.

He also won the Purple Heart and other decorations, and served in Korea and Vietnam before retiring from the service in 1974. The Sitter & Barfoot Veterans Care Center, a state nursing home for military retirees in Richmond, bears his name.

Barfoot's daughter, Margaret Nicholls, said her father has been moved to tears by the outpouring of support, and hopes the nine-member homeowners' board will use its discretion and let him keep the pole.

"A house-mounted pole? That is not an option," Nicholls said. "The flagpole is definitely what he's fighting for."

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news.../US.Flag.Flap/

[namvet]

I feel for him. but HOA's do have rules about this. they can be a major pain.

[cat slave]

I absolutely cannot fathom why anyone wants to live in a community run by
a gestapo.

My sister in law and brother in law live in one of those prisons and they have
to have everything okd by the board of prison guards! Id rather be dead than
live somewhere like that, but whatever floats anyones boat....its just not for
me.

[chloe]

aww I felt sorry for him, it made me think of grandpa, the guy is 90 yrs old, he doesn't understand the home owners thing.

[Joyful HoneyBee]

It is an outrage that any HOA would take such a stance about a flagpole and go after such a highly decorated, elderly veteran. It is because of men like Barfoot that these people have the freedom to even establish a HOA in the first place.

He is an old man who has served this country, in fact the world, faithfully and honorably. They need to leave him alone.

I guarantee that these heathens would bend their association rules to build a gazebo or some other such nonsense if that suited their fancy. I've seen it done. They just need to get off their high horses and choose their battles to be only those that are truly in the best interest of the community.

[Jeff]

He ought to take it down and then Paint the Flag on his Garage door, HOA are usually just like politics, all full of shit, seem the people most active or that run the show can do what they want but make the rules for the rest

I lived in a area like that in SC, one of the rules was all animals must be on a leash, but the lady that ran it all let her dog run the neighborhood, I guess that is do as I say not as I do

Poor dog had to pay the price cause she couldn't follow the rules

[Joe Steel]

I absolutely cannot fathom why anyone wants to live in a community run by a gestapo.

For one thing, so they won't have live next to cat freaks.