News-Info-Alerts

Re: Return the Flag

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: June 06, 2002

"Nevada man makes plea to public for return of flag

Marlys Barker, Editor June 05, 2002

      If this story is read by only one person, Dennis Haislip hopes that person is the one who can help him get his flag back.
     
This past Saturday, Haislip filed a report with Nevada Police when he realized, upon returning home from work later in the day, that his American and POW-MIA flags had been stolen.


      The American flag, he said, "I'm going to replace it. I can go get another one."

      But the POW-MIA flag was one-of-a-kind. Haislip was given that flag by his father, now deceased, who fought in the Vietnam War. It cannot be replaced.

      "By stealing the POW flag, the person who did it has no idea how many people they dishonored," Haislip said. "Basically (those soldiers) provided the freedom which this person has used to run around town and steal my flag."

      Haislip moved to Nevada with his fiancee, Nicole Patterson, and their daughter, Makena, about three months ago. They moved here from Shelton, Wash., when Haislip took a job in the service department of Zylstra Harley Davidson Cycle Co. in Ames.

      Haislip said what has impressed him most as a new resident of Nevada is the community's patriotic nature. "I notice in Nevada, every fourth house or so, I see an American flag hanging. It's one of the most patriotic towns I've ever lived in."

      He also felt Nevada was the kind of place where it was safe to hang flags and to trust hanging his POW-MIA flag, which has such sentimental value. "I really didn't expect anything like this," he said of the theft.

      Police were disappointed to have to take his theft report, Haislip noted.      Nevada Police Chief Mark See estimates the department takes about one to three flag theft reports a year. "Occasionally a large or unique flag is taken," he said.

      Haislip said the value of the POW-MIA flag to him is that it bridges a sense of patriotism from his father to himself and future generations. "My father had purchased the flag, and when he died, it became mine. Basically, my father told me not to forget what happened, because if I forgot, maybe it would happen to my son, or my son's sons. The people who went to Vietnam or any foreign war, they go and do their duty, and if they're injured, captured or killed, they need to come back home.

      "The people fighting today," Haislip continued, "if they go and are killed, they need to be sent back home. The way Vietnam happened, people were disappearing left and right, and there was no accounting for that. The way that can be prevented is people remembering what happened last time."

      Haislip believes his POW-MIA flag may have struck the fancy of a child, due to it looking different than many other flags. The POW-MIA flag is black and white.

      Haislip said if the flag was stolen by a youngster who doesn't understand the meaning of that flag, he hopes that somehow that youngster will be reached and realize that the flag should be returned.

      See said, if Haislip gets his flag back or if it's returned to the police department, the department would be willing to cooperate in helping the person understand the value of the flag. "We'd certainly work with this person and see what the victim of the theft wants to see happen," said See, adding that what constitutes a theft is a person's desire to "permanently deprive an individual of something."

      "I'm not going to be angry at them," Haislip said. "Probably what I would like to do is sit down and explain to them what the flag means to me and what the flag represents."


Marlys Barker can be reached at mbarker@nevadaiowajournal.com.

©Nevada Journal 2002 "