Someone emailed this to me, and I just had to share it. It is a typical example of how we are being crushed under varying forms of tyrannical rule – at all levels of ‘governance’. In this case, a HOA (home owners association).
It is our duty as naturally free human beings to resist forms of tyranny, for if we do not, then we deserve to lose our freedom and independence.
The following took place a number of years ago, but is well worth revisiting:
Van T. Barfoot died during 2012.
You might remember the news story several years ago about a crotchety old man in Virginia who defied his local Homeowners Association, and refused to take down the flag pole on his property along with the large American flag he flew on it…
Now we learn who that old man was.
On June 15, 1919, Van T. Barfoot was born in Edinburg , Texas .
That probably didn’t make news back then.
But twenty-five years later, on May 23, 1944, near Carano , Italy , that same Van T. Barfoot, who had in 1940 enlisted in the U.S. Army, set out alone to flank German machine gun positions from which gunfire was raining down on his fellow soldiers.
His advance took him through a minefield but having done so, he proceeded to single-handedly take out three enemy machine gun positions, returning with 17 prisoners of war.
And if that weren’t enough for a day’s work, he later took on and destroyed three German tanks sent to retake the machine gun positions.
That probably didn’t make much news either, given the scope of the war, but it did earn Van T. Barfoot, who retired as a Colonel after also serving in Korea and Vietnam , a well deserved Congressional Medal of Honor.
What did make news…Was his Neighborhood Association’s quibble with how the 90-year-old veteran chose to fly the American flag outside his suburban Virginia home. Seems the HOA rules said it was OK to fly a flag on a house-mounted bracket, but, for decorum, items such as Barfoot’s 21-foot flagpole were “unsuitable”.
Van Barfoot had been denied a permit for the pole, but erected it anyway and was facing court action unless he agreed to take it down.
Then the HOA story made national TV, and the Neighborhood Association rethought its position and agreed to indulge this aging hero who dwelt among them.
“In the time I have left”, he said to the Associated Press, “I plan to continue to fly the American flag without interference.”
As well he should.
And if any of his neighbors had taken a notion to contest him further, they might have done well to read his Medal of Honor citation first. Seems it indicates Mr. Van Barfoot wasn’t particularly good at backing down.
UPDATE:
Van T. Barfoot’s Medal of Honor citation:
(h/t to ‘T for Texas’ who found it)
This 1944 Medal of Honor citation, listed with the National Medal of Honor Society, is for Second Lieutenant Van T. Barfoot, 157th Infantry, 45th Infantry
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his Thompson submachine gun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot’s extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.
Do the right thing!
WE ONLY LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE! AND, BECAUSE OF OLD MEN LIKE VAN BARFOOT!
0 (today) 1 (week) 6 (month)
I salute a man of such courage and honor.
It’s not MY favorite, but it is good.
“The Most Amazing 4th of July Video And Story I’ve Ever Seen or Heard!”
youtube.com/watch?v=tAYnmDNNguA
A similar incident happened in the same type of community in a town in SE Florida, a few years ago, when a Marine vet did the same. The HOA (Home Owners Assoc.) started assessing Fines for every day the (OUR) flag flew in front of his home, in violation of HOA Rules. Not backing down, the Flag kept flying. The HOA didn’t back down either, and the Courts ruled in their favor. He was forced to move, because he would not take down OUR FLAG.
When the Marines raised OUR Flag on IWO JIMA, they were our Heroes.
That’s how far our country has fallen since then. We truly deserve the fate that will now befall us.
‘God, Country, Family’. We collectively have deserted our true Values.
PATRICK HENRY:
I couldn’t agree more!
When the citizens of a country fail to ‘Rally ‘Round the Flag’, they don’t deserve that flag.
I remember this incident well – I lived in one of the surrounding communities. The local newspaper sent out a couple of reporters to gauge what public opinion would be. Do you really want to know? The majority opinion was: He brought it upon himself. All he had to do was take down the flag. Some even called him “an old fool”‘
“All he had to do was take down the flag”.
Now tell me we haven’t become a Nation of Sheep!
And I bet they got the money for the fines when he sold the place.
Just hope the newer generations reveal more individuals like this. What an inspiring example of humanity!
R.I.P. Sir, your relief is here to take over.
Amen…Relief is here, SIR.
I just can’t understand why anybody would put up with HOA crap. There’s not enough gold on Earth that would convince me to live under such conditions. Knowing what we know of HOA’s, there are way too many options to list here today. Come on, people…leave the HOA to those that need supervision…like zombie liberals.
First off, the Medal of Honor is one of the few things we can truly look up to these days. But secondly, if memory serves, those homeowner association rules have been found binding by the Supreme Court. And they are sort of on my list of things to measure the economic collapse of America by. Or at least front yard gardens clothes lines are…
Front yard gardens AND clothes lines are. Sorry
Don’t forget the chickens you can not have.
Mr. Barfoot is a true hero of the very first degree. I salute him and honor him for standing his ground, in a foreign country as well as here at home.
Our nation today, for the most part, is a nation of gutless and mindless sheep. The liberties that Mr. Barfoot fought for have been slowly eroded away. Will they ever be reinstated, I certainly hope so. But it will take courage, lots of it, to make that happen. We are leaving a mess for our children!
Today is a day of reflection for me. I am a veteran, I volunteered for duty and also hazardous duty and came through unscathed and whole, praise the Lord. Our military is in sad shape today, especially so at the leadership level. We are putting our men and women in harm’s way in far too many places around the world. It is stupid and meaningless and truly serves no good purpose.
Our politicians are extremely corrupt. The citizens are over regulated and over taxed. Our national economy has deteriorated to dangerous levels. I believe that the U S A is on the brink of disaster. We need a nation of Mr. Van Barfoots, and soon.
At this point our country is still probably the best on the planet, let’s try and restore it and keep it that way.
God bless all
HOA, “Happy Oblivious A$$hats”. ?????????????????????????
I wouldn’t live with HOA rules or dues for anything! For a few years I sold real estate, it was quite an education! I learned that there are a huge amount of folks who think those rules protect them from living in less than ideal situations.
They also want others around them to follow the same rules they have set up for themselves. They want control of the color you paint your house, the kind of landscaping you may have, and where you may park your car. Clothes lines I guess are tacky. I didn’t know this before I was told. The people that choose to live this way deserve each other.
IMHO, it is self inflicted communism. I agree there are some cruddy looking homes. But as long as there is no threat to others health and welfare (and they OWN the property) it is their right to be pigs. I don’t choose to, it is my choice to keep a nice place to live. I don’t believe any of us actually owns our property anymore even if it is paid for.
It is a sad state of affairs when we cannot fly the flag of our own country in our yard, although it speaks volumes about what we have let this country become. I could go on but am afraid I will get a score from NRP’s rant o meter. I would be crushed if I didn’t score high, I’m an over achiever.
It is a very fitting post for this day!
Thanks Ken
If you sign a contract with pages of rules then I would expect them to win. The problem starts when people don’t read the contract and people, myself included, would not expect it to include our county’s flag. Who would have thought!
Lived in such a place once and would never do it again.
But then it’s getting so bad that in some places that the city says you can’t have a garden in your front yard.
One problem–at any point they can say “And other rules” and it still sticks. Even if you read the contract, if it says ANYWHERE that they can add to it, DO NOT SIGN.
HOA’s are one of the many reasons I left California and relocated to a place where I do not have a pencil necked lawyer telling me what I can/cannot do on my property. Some restrictive HOA’s can actually serve to LOWER the property value of a given community. I became active in our neighborhood association and became our Neighborhood Watch contact person (HMFIC ?) with the local PD.
I did not like some things going on so I became an agent of change. In our case, we had some conflicts over the American flag being too big and cars being parked in the wrong places when our top priority among the residents was several kids dealing drugs from homes within our community. I remember getting into an argument with the lawyer in charge of the HOA. The ultimate argument about what we eventually did was the fact that : I LIVE HERE! Ddo not pretend to tell me what I cannot do on my own property when you sit in an office in a nearby town collecting our HOA fees. Residents banding together can change the HOA agreement.
Have a Happy Fourth of July to all on this site. Stay safe and have fun. I’ll be working this afternoon.
Ken, the Medal of Honor citation didn’t make your blog. Allow me to post it:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty on 23 May 1944, near Carano, Italy. With his platoon heavily engaged during an assault against forces well entrenched on commanding ground, 2d Lt. Barfoot (then Tech. Sgt.) moved off alone upon the enemy left flank. He crawled to the proximity of 1 machinegun nest and made a direct hit on it with a hand grenade, killing 2 and wounding 3 Germans. He continued along the German defense line to another machinegun emplacement, and with his Thompson submachine gun killed 2 and captured 3 soldiers. Members of another enemy machinegun crew then abandoned their position and gave themselves up to Sgt. Barfoot. Leaving the prisoners for his support squad to pick up, he proceeded to mop up positions in the immediate area, capturing more prisoners and bringing his total count to 17. Later that day, after he had reorganized his men and consolidated the newly captured ground, the enemy launched a fierce armored counterattack directly at his platoon positions. Securing a bazooka, Sgt. Barfoot took up an exposed position directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks. From a distance of 75 yards his first shot destroyed the track of the leading tank, effectively disabling it, while the other 2 changed direction toward the flank. As the crew of the disabled tank dismounted, Sgt. Barfoot killed 3 of them with his tommygun. He continued onward into enemy terrain and destroyed a recently abandoned German fieldpiece with a demolition charge placed in the breech. While returning to his platoon position, Sgt. Barfoot, though greatly fatigued by his Herculean efforts, assisted 2 of his seriously wounded men 1,700 yards to a position of safety. Sgt. Barfoot’s extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers.
Wow! Thanks for posting the full text of the citation.
@T for Texas,
Thanks – I just updated the article to include the citation…
It’s holidays like this that remind us of where we came from that helps to keep us going in the right direction, but it seems that we now have some politicians that still require a road map.
Those that still refuse to follow the guidelines set forth in the Constitution need to be removed from their responsibilities by whatever means necessary. We have had some illegal laws passed that go against the Constitution Rights of our citizens.
Allowing our Executive Branch to OUT RIGHT VIOLATE LAWS means that we are complicated with those actions. For Evil to advance only requires good men to do nothing!!! How much more are you going to allow our Country to decay???
My voice to those that I voted for to represent me have been ignored too long!!!
Its time for A CALL TO ACTION!!!!
Thought this was very fitting for the blog and just thought I would share it with you ken. thanks.
If a despicable mommie’s boy coward works and makes his own living without his hand in my pocket then that dmbc is a hero to me.
Mr. Barfoot’s Medal of Honor is what allowed him to keep his flag.
He probably deserved two Medal’s of Honor, one for taking the machine gun nests and another for knocking out the three tanks that tried to retake them. That aside, we veterans and children of a lesser God, also deserve our voices to be heard.
Freedom is for everyone.
Freedom is void of clout, recognition, and social stratum. Freedom to fly an American Flag on any occasion, for any reason, at any location should not be hindered regardless of the circumstances.
I am not a military Veteran.
I say that as a preface for this: I often wonder if Heinlein wasn’t on to something with the idea that military service be required to be a full citizen with voting rights.
Helmet-
I am a veteran (USMC) and I would never deny you your citizenship privileges, voting rights, or Constitutional rights. My oath of enlistment was to protect America and all Americans. By virtue of my service I have attained certain benefits under the GI Bill and the Veterans Administration.
I am happy to have served and happy that my service is honored and respected.
I would never willingly give up my own Constitutional rights, and I have nothing but disdain for those who would. There is a saying about giving up freedoms in favor of security; I’m sure you’ve read it. I fly both the US flag and a Marine Corps flag in my front yard. I hope no one has any doubt where I stand.
‘SEMPER FI’ !!
Semper Fortis !!
If you are the type of person that would deny this man the right to fly his flag then I request that you leave this country right NOW. Leave and don’t ever come back. You don’t belong here.