Free Republic

<p>WASHINGTON -- White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that it is "silly" to think that a 90-year-old Medal of Honor winner is being asked to remove a flagpole from his front yard.</p>

Col. Van T. Barfoot, a local Medal of Honor recipient, is under the gun from his Henrico County community's homeowner association. In a five-paragraph letter to Barfoot that he received yesterday, Barfoot is being ordered to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day in a three-corner military fashion. ... There is no provision in the community's rules expressly forbidding flagpoles, Barfoot's daughter said. But she said the board ruled against her father's...

Here is a brief video report about a Virginia World War II Congressional Medal of Honor winner who is fighting to keep the right to raise the American Flag on his flagpole every day. Ninety year-old Van Barfoot has been told by his homeowner's association the flagpole has to go. He intends to keep putting up his flag no matter what. Barfoot is a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. A decision is expected next week. The Richmond Times-Dispatch has more on the case. (VIDEO)

90 year-old Colonel Van Barfoot has until Friday to remove the flagpole from his yard. Since this saga began, it's been played out on the radio from Washington D.C. to Boston, but many believe what is happening to this true American hero is tarnishing the image of Richmond. Barfoot lives in the Sussex Square community in western Henrico County. He moved there in July, and was ordered to remove the flagpole from his front lawn when he flew the flag on Labor Day, and again on Veterans Day. The homeowner's association doesn't explicitly forbid flagpoles but they must be "aesthetically...