Vandals burn American flag donated by Marine to Oregon school

Vandals in Oregon set fire to an American flag that a Marine donated to a local school, EAGNews.org reported.

1st Sgt. Reginald Daniels gave the flag to the Brattain Early Learning Center in Springfield. He recently noticed that there was no flag on the school’s pole and received a call a couple of days later from the school inquiring how much he paid for the flag, the report said.

“I was like, ‘Why do they need that?'” he told KVAL. “And they said that the flag was burned.”

The Marine, who donated a replacement flag to the school, said the vandals burned the flag and returned it to the pole, flying it at half-staff, the report said.

“Some of the teachers kind of teared up a little bit and then they took me in to the back room and showed me the flag that was burned,” he told KVAL. “I was lost for words to see that someone had pulled the flag down off the pole and burned it.”

Daniels, who served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, said he understands “everybody has their views, but I think everybody can have something they look proudly at, and that’s – I take pride in the flag.”