Much to my surprise, as co-chair of the Clark County Veterans Memorial Committee, I read in the Oct. 25 Columbian story, “Longtime flag crusade spurs switch,” that the flags at the memorial are being moved as per Wally Tharp’s request without any response or feedback from the Clark County Veterans Memorial committee, nor any other veterans groups that I know of.
I find this very offensive to our committee.
We spent many years planning the placement of the memorial and flags so that everything was correct. We have fought the movement of these flags for the past 14 years with the supposed support of all concerned veterans, as well as city, county, state, U.S. Army and federal government agencies.
As if Tharp has not caused enough problems with our memorial, he now says, “They should pick it up and turn it,” so that fatalities from the earliest conflicts on the memorial would be facing the American flag.
I ask that all veterans from Clark County go down to the memorial and see for themselves the “new” placement of the flags and let your feelings be known to The Columbian, as well as to their veterans organizations.