Published: February 06, 2008 05:45 pm            

Letter to editor - Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008

Plenty of flag watchers inside local Wal-Mart

This letter is in reference to the letter another reader sent to you a couple of weeks ago about Wal-Mart’s American flag.

First of all, I would like for you to know that this letter does not represent the opinions of either Wal-Mart Inc. or the management within the store in Kokomo. However, I am a five-year associate of the store in Kokomo and also a 10-year member of a local veterans group in Howard County. I just want you to know that there are two sides to every story, and this is mine.

Each Veterans Day at Wal-Mart, I am allowed to have a Veterans Day salute. This past year, we did a salute to the eight nurses who perished in Vietnam in the ’60s. After each presentation, we have a part of the salute where we play each branch of the military’s music and each veteran of that branch is asked to stand and be recognized.

After each veteran is applauded for, then we ask if you have family members who have served in that branch of the forces to please stand and be recognized. After this salute, cake is served in honor of all veterans. Employed in this Wal-Mart, we have veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm. That in itself says a lot about Wal-Mart.

Because I am the one who does the salute, and I am the one who is a member of a local veterans group, each time one of the flags is under distress, it is removed from the flag pole and laid on my desk so I can deliver it to my veterans’ group to be destroyed properly, which is burned. I not only find it lying on my desk, but no matter what shape it is in, it is folded into the proper 13 folds.

Even under distress, it is handled with the utmost honor. I believe it is one of our co-managers who was in the military, and she folds it before it is given to me.

The very flag that your reader was talking about did in fact have the corners a bit tattered. It was not in shreds. (I still have the flag at home.) However, if you recall, we had an ice storm followed by a rain storm all within two weeks.

The first storm weakened the cord that the flag is secured to. The second storm broke the cord, and the flag was hanging from the top of the pole.

The very day it broke was the day of the wind/rain storm. Even with 30 mph winds, our maintenance engineer, Jerry (who, by the way, is a Vietnam veteran), offered to take an extension ladder, which barely reaches the top of the pole, and try to rescue her, but somehow his safety meant more to all of us than trying to rescue the flag at that very moment.

If you speak to Jerry, he would tell you that at least 20 associates had complained about her being in distress. The only thing left to do was to contact the fire department to see if they could help us out. They did. When they rescued the flag, there was some miscommunication with the fire department and one of our associates who did not know we already had new rope, clips and flag ready to be put back up. The fire department said to contact them, and they would come back out to hang the new one, and they have.

I would also like this community to know that Wal-Mart as a company has given thousands upon thousands of dollars to this community. Wal-Mart has also given grants to the veterans group I belong to. This money allows our veterans group to buy Christmas gifts for the wounded soldiers at the VA Hospital in Marion, along with other monies we raise throughout the year.

As far as Wal-Mart’s flag ... there are plenty of patriotic people inside the building watching her too!

Jackie Myers

Sharpsville

        

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