Yesterday began the final journey for two “fallen soldiers” who succumbed to battle wounds. These soldiers are the remains of two desecrated American flags that laid in the mud and dirt for countless weeks, battered and torn by the elements! Finally, with the owner’s permission, I reverently gathered them up and gently laid them to rest inside a plastic bag. Rather like gathering up the remains of a fallen comrade-in-arms on a battlefield, and memories of my tour of duty in South Korea.

Our American flag has been stomped on and set on fire during protests. It is embossed in the fabric of clothing and tasteless ornaments of vanity. Its image is irreverently depicted in cartoons and painted backward on fences and one, defiantly displayed on a fence where the “stars on blue” is replaced by a symbol of the 1960s “drug culture!”

My sentiments are expressed in Lee Greenwood’s 1992 song, “I’m proud to be an American, living in this land that’s right to me!”

God bless and protect our brave American soldiers and our beloved America they are still fighting and dying for!

Linda Schaeffer

Westport