Vietnam Vet, Father Refuses to Take Down Tattered U.S. Flag

Can you understand this kind of sentimental devotion? I can. But it seems rather odd that no one thought the way to keep everyone happy was for the flag to be fixed and hung again instead of allowed to fly in tatters. A flag falling apart is not a sign of respect or honor. Repairing it would be.

California Father Refuses to Take Down Tattered U.S. Flag
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
By Joshua Rhett Miller


A promise is a promise.

A California dad is refusing to take down the tattered and torn American flag that's been flying on his lawn in Fresno for almost a year, despite complaints from neighbors on his military-heavy block and from a national veterans group that says he's mistreating the Stars and Stripes.

Even passersby have phoned Louis Haros, demanding that he take down his weather-beaten flag immediately.

But Haros, a Vietnam veteran, told his son last September that he'd wave that flag until he comes home from Iraq.

And a promise is a promise.

"I made a promise to him that it won't come down until he's home," Haros told FOXNews.com on Tuesday. "Well, it's still there. I feel if I bring it down and something happens to him … I don't know."

Paul Haros is already back on U.S. soil after his second tour in Iraq. He and his dad spoke yesterday when he landed in Wisconsin to undergo medical checks and to relinquish his weapons. But Louis Haros says the flag won't come down until Paul returns to Fresno.


"I told him this flag protected me in Vietnam and I will see that it protects you," said Haros, a former master sergeant in the U.S. Army. "In a normal situation, I would've brought it down a long time ago."
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California Father Refuses to Take Down Tattered U.S. Flag