Springfield, Ore. -- First Sergeant Reginald Daniels, Inspector Instructor of company A, 6th Engineer Support Battalion, 4th Marine Logistics Group, loves his country and the flag.
The married, father of two recently volunteered with some fellow Marines to build a playground at Brattain Early Learning Center in Springfield, Oregon. When he discovered the school didn’t have a flag, he bought one and showed the staff how to properly raise and lower it.
Then this week he got the news: somebody had burned the flag and left the burned and shriveled remains at half staff.
Daniels, who has deployed three times, was stoic.
“Even though it looks like this, it still means a lot to me,” said Daniels. “I love this country and what it stands for. I know everybody has their views, but I take pride in the flag. The flag is bigger than all the military services. We put the uniform on to protect it so that you and I– and the little kids in the school –can have something better.”
He bought a new flag for the school and helped the school staff hoist it back to its proper place.
The famous poem by Charles Province says:
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
Who serves beneath the flag,
And whose coffin is draped by the flag,
Who allows the protester to burn the flag.
The difference is, it has to be their own flag. And 1st Sgt Daniels wants the vandal to remember that.