Medal of Honor winner, 90, ordered to remove flagpole from his yard
Richmond Times Dispatch 12/02/2009
www2.timesdispatch.com
Col. Van T. Barfoot, one of the country's last-surviving World War Two Medal of Honor winners, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association.
Barfoot received the Medal of Honor on the battlefield during World War II in Italy, and fought as well in the Korean and Vietnam wars. A portion of a highway in rural Mississippi, his native state, was named in his honor this fall. A building at McGuire Veterans Hospital in Richmond also carries his name.
In a priority mail letter, the Coates & Davenport law firm in Richmond is ordering Barfoot to remove the pole by 5 p.m. Friday or face "legal action being brought to enforce the Covenants and Restrictions against you."
The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion.
"There's never been a day in my life or a place I've lived in my life that you couldn't fly the American flag," Barfoot said. |
