Fuck your flag pole and your medal of honor.
 

Article: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/ne...201/309031/P0/

Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor winner, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association.

In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion.

In a priority mail letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond is ordering Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face "legal action being brought to enforce the Covenants and Restrictions against you." The letter states that Barfoot will be subject to paying all legal fees and costs in any successful legal proceeding pursued by the homeowner association's board.

Barfoot lives in the Sussex Square community in far western Henrico; its board of directors rejected a plea from Barfoot in July to approve the pole, disallowing the fixture on aesthetic grounds.

There is no provision in the community's rules expressly forbidding flagpoles, Barfoot's daughter said. But she said the board ruled against her father's fixture and ordered it removed in July, deciding that free-standing flag poles are not aesthetically appropriate. Short flag stands attached to porches dot the community.

"Dad sort of feels like this is the end," said Margaret Nicholls, Barfoot's daughter, who lives a few doors away. But she said this morning that she and her husband are attempting to generate support for her father's cause, a flag-raising rite that he has undertaken for most of his life.

Barfoot received the Medal of Honor on the battlefield during World War II in Italy and fought as well in the Korean and Vietnam wars. A portion of a highway in rural Mississippi, his native state, was named in his honor this fall. A building at McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond also carries his name.

Barfoot began regularly flying the flag on Veteran's Day this year despite the Sussex Square board's decision.

He said in November that not flying the flag would be a sacrilege to him.

"There's never been a day in my life or a place I've lived in my life that you couldn't fly the American flag," he said.

For more on this story, see tomorrow's Richmond Times-Dispatch.

-- Bill McKelway

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digg Discussion:
Digg / Error
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
His citation:
Citation For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy.
With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank.
He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his tommygun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers.
Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17.

Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions.
Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank.
As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech.

While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.




I'm really curious to certain members of this site think about this. Poor old man, I hope he wins.

I hope he wins too.

Surviving MOH recipients are rare these days. To get one means that basically you are the shit.

I mean if your a private the lowest of the enlisted and you've earned a MOH fucking 4 star Generals have to salute you. Do you know how much honor that carries with it.

I say let this guy raise his flag morning and and sundown all he wants. He's given enough to this country to earn that right.

People have bleed and died for the American flag, it should be just that it is raised to remind us all of that everyday. Instead we're more concern about what Lady Gaga is wearing for the next awards show.

This is completely outrageous.

I cannot even begin to fathom this level of stupidity and disrespect on the part of the Home Owners Association.

Fuck your Home Owners Association!

i will never move into a subdivision with a home owners' association. bunch of fucking shitheads.
my buddy's parents live next to this dude... he had a sailboat in his back yard, and the HOA made him move it off his property, so he put up a couple flagpoles behind his fence with sailboat sails on them, and then redid his yard and exterior of his house in a nautical theme. little rope fence around his front yard, lifesavers all over the fence, an anchor in the front yard, a huge lit sign over the garage that said "dry dock", and so on and so forth. and he's on the front corner lot of the subdivision, so anybody looking to buy a house in the neighborhood sees him first.
dude's a total asshole but it was really, really funny.

Now thats just fucked up. His actions and the actions of everyone in WWII made it to possible for those assholes in HOA's to dictate their ideals of perfection to anyone living in their property.

Let him keep his flag. Let him wave it proudly for everyone to see.

He completed two call of duty missions on Veteran in one day, what a savage!


if the home owners association does not have a full out public apology asap. thats beyond fucked up.

a living MOH recipient? those dudes need to be kissing his ass

agree with everyone...shits fucking stupid, fuck HOA...waiste

FUCK that HOA....i hope he wins....

The shit people do nowadays is fucking ridiculous at times. If the flag of the country that you live in and provides for you is not aesthetically pleasing you should be sent to live in Afghanistan. Fuck that shit!

While I agree that he deserves to be able to present the flag, nobody forced him to live in a community that has a HOA. And sadly the HOA has control, not him. That is why many people choose NOT to live in those areas. As much as I wish he would win, its not going to happen.

^ There's one of the answers I was waiting for.

America...........................I just am not surprised anymore by anything like this.


On a side note, whoever is behind making this man take his flag down should be fucking gutted and decapitated.

^^But the thing is, there is NOTHING in the HOA manual stating you cannot put up such a flagpole.

I wish this was a fake story.... but I couldn't be that lucky anymore.

A lot of people REALLY need to pull their head out of their ass.
Why don't they just kick and spit on the guy too?

The disrespect these days to those that serve our country is simply mind blowing.

It has nothing to do with the guy in all honesty, him being a MOH Veteran has no bearing on whether he can put a flag up or not. The HOA decided that nobody can have free-standing flag poles in their yard in that area. That goes for the families living on either side of him to.

yeah.... I understand the "rule".
However, it's a huge FUCK YOU to the veteran

No its not... Because again it doesn't matter if the guy is a veteran or not. They are not targeting "veterans" its a blanket for EVERYBODY who lives there. If he doesn't like it, MOVE. To be honest HOA do this EVERYWHERE and the only reason this gets any press at all is because the guy is a veteran, its a shame.

If I understand correctly, there is no rule that states he cant have the pole. After it was up, they decided it wasn't pretty so they want him to take it down.

I think you kind of miss the whole point.

Yes, you are "right", so to speak, but at the same time you are so wrong also.

It's kind of like those lawyers and whatnot who look at fine print and interpretations to screw people out of stuff.

yeah, that's true, so in my opinion it's even MORE of a fuck you to the guy.

:(

Lets assume the Vet doesn't remove the pole, and lets assume the Vet doesn't pay 'fines' to the homeowners association....what the hell can they even do to him?

He can still easily hang a flag from his porch like everybody else. The problem is if this article was about anything other than a veteran like I said, I think people would just say he should take it down and be down with it.

Ah yes, lawyers not so much concerned with 'doing the right thing', only 'getting their client in the clear'

Take him to court, make him pay to remove it, pay all of the court fees etc.

Not to nit pick, but if I was in any kind of trouble thats EXACTLY what I would want my lawyer to do... Maybe your different

See, I don't live in such a situation so I'm not 100% how they work, but I just wouldn't go...

Crap, forgot about this.

Read The Bill: H.R. 42 [109th] - GovTrack.us

I think the fact that he IS a veteran.... and QUITE a veteran at that, makes this story ALL the more important.

I'd rather not be a fuck up and be in the wrong to begin with, so maybe I am different.

Then you end up with a bench warrant, and eventually being arrested if you choose not to show up and/or pay