An American flag that hasn’t flown since the end of World War II was briefly raised Sunday outside an Oxford Village home to honor all the brave servicemen and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Jim Huston, of 4 Park St., proudly hoisted a 48-star American flag that once flew above the U.S.S. WM Seiverling, the destroyer his late father Charles Huston served on in the Pacific theater.
“This flag hasn’t flown since September 2, 1945,” Huston said as he removed it from it’s protective case. “Other than my wife, kids and grandkids, this is probably my most prized possession.”
After the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender to the United States aboard the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, all the American ships in the bay dipped their flags into the water, put them away and hoisted “new colors signifying a new beginning,” according to Huston.
The U.S.S. WM Seiverling’s communications officer gave one of the retired flags to Huston’s father.
Huston’s reasons for returning the historical flag to active duty for a few moments were twofold.
“I wanted to fly the flag briefly in honor of all our troops who are in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
One of those soldiers in harm’s way is Huston’s nephew David Chick, a Specialist in the 101st Airborne.
“He’s in Iraq right now,” Huston said. “He was in Afghanistan for six months’ prior to the war.
Huston said the media’s recent reports about Iraqis abusing and killing American Prisoners of War “really got me upset” so he wanted to do something to honor the troops.
Huston also decided to fly the flag in response to the anti-war protests being staged around the nation.
“People got a right to protest, but there’s a time and a place for it,” he said. “I think once the shooting starts, the soldiers need all the support they can get.”
“I hate the thought of my nephew in a foxhole defending Americans with his life, while protesters are hitting the streets.”
If the anti-war protesters “don’t agree with the policies of this government, they should do something about it at election time,” Huston said.
Huston also believes the anti-war protesters are distracting the police “from the task of protecting the American people from terrorism.”
Given Huston’s deep sense of patriotism, it was evident he wished he could do more than fly a flag.
“I am 50 years old, but I’d go right now (to fight) if they’d take me,” he said.
Oxford Township resident Leslie Waggett doesn’t have a piece of American history to show his support for the troops, but he does have a homemade red, white and blue sign bearing the words “Let’s Roll” on the front lawn of his 1331 Beemer Court home.
Wagget’s reasons for making and displaying the sign are also twofold.
A “No War” sign on the front lawn of a neighbor’s house two doors away from him “more or less prompted me to say something for the street,” Waggett said while wearing his Operation Desert Storm sweat-shirt from the 1991 Gulf War.
He noted that since he put the sign out, many of his neighbors have begun to display their American flags.
A Vietnam veteran and member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, Waggett also created the patriotic sign to give troops the moral support he never received.
“I’m backing the boys because I know when I came home, we didn’t get a reception,” he said. “I want these boys to have one because they deserve it. They’re doing the job and we’ve got to back them.”
As both an American and British citizen, Waggett flies both Old Glory and Union Jack outside his home.
“I’m proud both ways,” he said.