Showing His True Colors for Flag Day

When John Doyle moved to the Morningside retirement community a few years back, he was surprised that so few of his neighbors displayed the U.S. flag on national holidays.

On his first Memorial Day in the neighborhood, “I was disappointed when I counted my flag and [only] 11 others,” the World War II veteran recalled.

So Doyle, a retired Army Air Force colonel and former marketing director for a telephone company, organized a campaign to stir up patriotism among his neighbors. “I decided they had to get a flag and get it mounted,” he said.

The results of his dedication will be evident with today’s display of 307 star-spangled banners at Morningside’s apartments and villas in commemoration of the nation’s 219th Flag Day.

Through an informal telephone survey of Morningside’s 337 residential units, Doyle learned that some people had personal or religious reasons for not displaying the flag but that most simply didn’t think they could afford to do so.

Doyle persuaded the retirement community’s managers to donate money to help buy flags and holders, and to have the maintenance crew install them. He then purchased the flags, getting a volume discount, and sold them to his neighbors at cost: $6 apiece.

Amy Kremer, Morningside’s activity director, said Doyle’s enthusiasm was contagious. “His flag program has become important to just about everyone at Morningside,” she said.

His sales pitch consisted of citing examples of “negative things in this country” that he attributes to a lack of patriotism: bombings of government buildings and militia groups arming themselves to fight the government.

His flag-raising campaign, which he dubbed “Fly the Old Glory Program,” is “an opportunity for us to show that this community loves its country and supports it,” he said.