THIS IS WHAT A HERO LOOKS LIKE!

This makes me proud to   be an American.   May you Rest In Peace!

VanT. Barfoot June 15, 1919 - 2 March 2012.

 

Remember the guy who wouldn't take the flag down?

You might remember a news story several months ago about a crotchety old man who defied his homeowners association and refused to take down the flagpole on his property and the large flag that flew on it. Now you can find out whom, exactly, that man was. On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburgh -- probably didn't make much news back then. Twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Carano, Italy, Van T. Barfoot, who had enlisted in the US Army in 1940, set out to flank German machine gun positions from which fire was coming down on his fellow soldiers. He advanced through a minefield, took out three enemy machine gun positions and captured 17 prisoners of war.

If that wasn't enough for a day's work, he later Encountered three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions. He disabled one of the tanks and forced the other two to redirect towards the flanks. That probably didn't make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel after also serving in Korea and Vietnam, a Congressional Medal of Honor.

What did   make news... was a neighborhood association's quibble with how the 90-year-old veteran chose to fly the American   flag outside his suburban Virginia home. Seems the rules said a flag could be flown on a house-mounted bracket, but, or decorum, items such as Barfoot's 21-foot flagpole were   unsuitable. He had been denied a permit for the pole, erected it anyway and was facing court action if he didn't take it down. Since the story made national TV, the neighborhood association has rethought its position and agreed to indulge this old hero who dwells among them.

"In the time I have left I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference," Barfoot told The Associated Press. As well he should, and if any of his neighbors still takes a notion to contest him, they might want to read his Medal of Honor citation. It indicates he's not good at backing down.

Van T. Barfoot's Medal of Honor citation:

WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE…

BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND, BECAUSE OF MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT! He is obviously not related to anybody in congress!