HOA Drops Deadline on Lawsuit Against Decorated Veteran Colonel Van T. Barfoot Over Flagpole

Updated 12/9/2009, 7 pm - The Sussex Square homeowners association has agreed to drop the Friday deadline for the removal of the flagpole outside of Colonel Van T. Barfoot's home. But, says its president Glen Wilson, the association is not promising to forgo legal actions against Col. Barfoot in the weeks ahead.

The homeowners association is no longer being represented by the law firm that sent Col. Barfoot a letter declaring that the association would pursue legal action if the flagpole was not removed by a 72-hour deadline last week.

Speaking to supporters outside his home today, Col. Barfoot was resolute and appreciative for the outpouring of support. "I raise the American flag each morning and hope everyone will understand what flying the flag means to me. I also want to thank the neighbors, and throughout the country, who supported me for flying the American flag, here in front of my house."

Col. Barfoot has declined to comment on legal proceedings and has rarely spoken to the press about the situation. The issue for him is not about getting the press to support his cause; it's simply about his flagpole and the flag that it flies. "When I raise my flag, I know, it will be a good day for America," Col. Barfoot said.

Updated 12/3/2009, 9 pm - The homeowners association has said they will extend the deadline for Col. Barfoot to remove the flag by one week to December 11, 2009. Ironically, December 11 commemorates the day the U.S. declared war on Italy and Germany in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

December 3, 2009 -- Richmond, Virginia -- A 90 year old Medal of Honor recipient has 24 hours to remove a flagpole from his front yard before his neighborhood homeowners association takes legal action against him.

Col. Van T. Barfoot has until 5pm Friday to remove the flagpole before Sussex Square Homeowners Association files a civil suit forcing him to remove it. On Tuesday, Coates & Davenport - the law firm representing the association - sent Col. Barfoot a five-paragraph letter, threatening a suit if the deadline is not met.

In the letter to Col. Barfoot, the association promises "legal action being brought to enforce the covenants and restrictions against you," and states that Col. Barfoot will be required to pay all legal fees and costs in any successful legal proceeding pursued by the association's nine-member board, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond law firm Marchant, Honey & Baldwin has offered to represent Col. Barfoot at no cost.

The effort to fly his flag from his flagpole has been a hard-fought saga. Col. Barfoot had attempted to purchase a home in the Sussex Square community adjacent to his daughter's home several years ago. During the process, he was adamant that he would only move into the community if he could install the flagpole he's been using for 36 years.

The then-president of the homeowners association agreed to permit Col. Barfoot to install his pole and even helped the Colonel find the perfect spot for it outside the home he intended to buy. That house, however, was not approved upon inspection, so Col. Barfoot had to wait until another house in the neighborhood became available. About two years later, Col. Barfoot found his current house, which is located same cul-de-sac as his daughter's house. However, because the house changed and the president of the association changed, Col. Barfoot's original agreement that he could fly the flag may, also, have changed.

In June, shortly after moving into the neighborhood from his farm in rural Amelia County, Virginia, Col. Barfoot formally requested permission from the homeowners association to erect the flagpole in his front lawn, but his request was denied. According to the association's guidelines, flagpoles are not forbidden, but they must be "aesthetically appropriate."

To stay on good terms with the homeowners association, Col. Barfoot decided not to erect the flagpole and discontinued his daily ritual of raising the American flag each morning at sunup and lowering and folding it in three-corner military style each evening at sundown, as he had done since childhood. The decision to forgo raising and lowering the flag each day agonized him.

Then, in November, Col. Barfoot was invited to attend the opening of three new venues at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. Other event attendees included Tom Hanks, Patricia Clarkson and Mickey Rooney, a flyover squadron of military jets and a crowd of 4,000 invitees who saluted 350 WWII veterans assembled on the Museum's parade grounds, according to a museum press release.

While at the event, Col. Barfoot decided that he would raise his American flag on his flagpole for Veterans Day. He then decided that he would raise the flag every day, reclaiming his daily ritual of saluting his country and honoring all who have served it.

Col. Barfoot is a veteran of three wars and, according to his supporters, has more than earned the privilege of having the association approve his request for a flagpole. He is one of the nation's last living World War II veterans and is the nation's most decorated combat veteran alive, according to his family. He has more than 20 medals to his name, including a Medal of Honor, The Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts for injuries he sustained in combat. Additionally, a portion of a highway in his home state of Mississippi was named in his honor just this fall and a building at McGuire Veterans Affairs Medical Center also bears his name.

"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," Col. Barfoot told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "I've flown the flag at my home as long as I can remember...This is the first time in the last 36 years that I've been unable to put my flag up on the same pole, the same staff and take it down when it's time to come down."

By installing and keeping the flagpole erected in his front yard, Col. Barfoot has acted in direct violation of the board's decision to deny his request, the association said in a statement released on Wednesday;"This is not about the American flag. This is about a flagpole...We are a neighborhood of patriotic Americans, many of whom have served our country in the military as Col. Barfoot has done...Col. Barfoot is free to display the American flag in conformity with the neighborhood rules and restrictions. We are hopeful that Col. Barfoot will comply."

Many of Col. Barfoot's neighbors fly flags from their porches - a practice that Col. Barfoot believes disgraceful to the flag. "First of all, it's not dignified, and it shows you got it in the half mast position... you can walk around here and I'll bet you the American flag is hanging out in the rain, nobody ever checks it," Col. Barfoot told reporters.

Col. Barfoot says he has always flown the flag from a vertical mast. "Where I've been, fighting wars ... military installations, parades, everything else, the flag is vertical. And I've done it that way since I was in the Army."

Col. Barfoot's daughter, Margaret Nicholls, lives a few doors away from her father in the Sussex Square neighborhood and is helping her father defend himself against the association. "In this time where patriotism seems to be lacking and political correctness is out there, we thought maybe, just maybe, they could do this one thing," she said.

Nicholls told reporters her father's phone is "ringing off the hook" with calls of support, including calls from service members, concerned citizens, the 157^th Infantry Unit - the unit with which Col. Barfoot served - and even former governor of Virginia U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-Va). "He said he was outraged and wanted to help," Nicholls said of Warner.

Warner told WWBT Channel 12, "I know that communities ought to have rules, but oh my gosh, if there's a time to make an exception to the rule for somebody whose served our country Medal of Honor winner for World War II, at a time when our troops are in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe there's no legal way for them, but sure as heck convince this subdivision to give this American hero a chance to raise his flag."

Warner also turned to Twitter to voice is support, tweeting, "Col Barfoot's a true hero & has my full support - decision just plain wrong & our office will try to help resolve situation."

One supporter drove two hours from Winchester, Virginia to stand outside of Col. Barfoot's house in a show of support. He wishes to be unnamed, but said he views Col. Barfoot as a patriot who is much-deserving of the nation's thanks; not civil law suits. "I was aghast when I heard what happened," he said. "He's a decorated war veteran!"

Col. Barfoot earned his Medal of Honor in World War II for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty," according to the official citation with the Congressional Medal of Honor Society for Col. Barfoot. While engaged in heavy combat near Carano, Italy on May 23, 1944, Barfoot - then a technical sergeant - moved alone along the enemy defense line and single-handedly destroyed a series of German machine gun nests, moving from one machinegun emplacement to another until the sole remaining enemy emplacement surrendered to Sgt. Barfoot. In his lone assault, Sgt. Barfoot killed eight enemy soldiers and took 17 prisoners.

But the fight wasn't over; the enemy then counterattacked using three Mark VI tanks. Sgt. Barfoot grabbed a bazooka and took up an exposed position directly in from of the advancing tanks. "From a distance of 75 yards, his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank." When the crew of the tanks dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed three of the soldiers with his tommygun. Afterwords, while returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot assisted two of his wounded men 1,700 to safety.

"Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers," reads the official citation.

Once again Col. Barfoot's inspiring other s- this time, though, they are inspired to speak up in support of his resolve to fly the American flag from his flagpole. "The very country that provides the locals against a flag pole with the freedoms to do so is the one that this gentleman fought to preserve. Vilifying a hero for honoring his country - when there is no law against a flag pole in the first place -should make these people hang their heads in shame," wrote "mrm1" on the Richmond Times-Dispatch Web site.

"This entire situation is ridiculous," wrote Brad Phillips of Des Moines Iowa on the WWBT Channel 12 Web site. "The [homeowners association] should be thanking this man for his service and thanking him for flying a flag that symbolizes the freedoms they have."

Phillips also noted that a federal law may be on Col. Barfoot's side; "The Freedom to Display the American Flag Act of 200556 prohibits a condominium, cooperative, or real estate management association from adopting or enforcing any policy or agreement that would restrict or prevent a member of the association from displaying the flag in accordance with the Federal Flag Code on residential property to which the member has a separate ownership interest," wrote Phillips.

Yet, for a man who has spent a lifetime protecting America's freedom, the current battle is disheartening. "Dad sort of feels like this is the end, said Nicholls."Emotional torture is what they've done to my father. He has lost sleep, he worries about it constantly. He just doesn't understand. He thinks that if it's on his property they can't tell him what to do."

Col. Barfoot says he appealed to the board to try to find an amicable solution for both parties. "I don't have any qualms with [the board's] authority, but the thing about it is that I cannot get enough conversation out of them where we can try to work out a solution," he said.

Regarding the flag, he said "It's most desirable that I keep it flying."

Sources:

http://www.nbc12.com/global/story.asp?s=11611154

http://www.wtvr.com/news/wtvr-veteran-flagpole,0,2550197.story

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/FLAG031_20091202-234201/309270/

http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/2625/barfoot-van-t.php

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:5XuUp5c8t8sJ:www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30243.pdf+Restrictions+on+Display+of+the+Flag+by+Real+Estate+Associations&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgMeoYWRL-mtIYyRhFHV7WQbLFaUb3jys7kfsTayBuT_Hug1pQK5j-ikWXUqpLl4s3vb2Bhcoa5JSwe8Phu7zThCmUP5pQt9cRne6UD6_L-Emfo5Wk_Skm6csjNZ6k6jl5RdMmk&sig=AHIEtbQxg9kugx2T3ehhOrXXatb64G7ujQ

http://www.nationalww2museum.org/media/press-releases/grand-opening-november-6.html

http://www.nbc12.com/Global/story.asp?S=11651683