Two flags in the dirt

When I’m in a mood, I sometimes remind my three kids — all teenagers — that their brains won’t be fully developed until they’re about 25.

Some kids get there long before others.

I mention this because it’s probably kids who are responsible for about a dozen thoughtless acts in Sahuarita and Green Valley over the weekend. Cars were damaged, homes vandalized, swastikas spray painted on signs.

The Sheriff’s Office connected a couple of the incidents, but nobody’s suggesting a hate group is rampaging through the streets. It’s probably kids.

I wish those same kids could sit down and talk to Dan Culler for a while. He’s the guy who walked out of his house Saturday morning and found his American flag on the ground. He’s the guy who told me that he broke down and cried when he saw it.

He’s the guy who values that flag like few of us could understand.

Culler’s story reaches back to March 18, 1944, when his B-24 was shot down over Switzerland on what was supposed to be his 25th and final mission before heading Stateside. He ended up being the lone American in Wauwilermoos, a dingy and notorious Swiss war prison where he spent his first 12 days in solitary. In all, he was there six months.

I’ll skip to the end of the story, where Culler escaped to France. Barely. He found 12 bullet holes in his clothing when he finally reached safety. The French underground helped him from there.

So there was the man, sitting on the other side of my desk Tuesday. He mentioned how the decorative driveway that he’d paid $3,000 to refinish a couple of months ago was ruined by a sticky substance tossed by the thugs. Three hours on his knees — he’s 85 — didn’t do much.

He talked about needing to tend to his wife of nearly 62 years, who is going through medical problems.

And he talked about that flag.

Actually, there were two flags. There was the Stars & Stripes that he’d replace in a heartbeat if it showed so much as a sign of fraying. We all have a claim on that one.

But flying below it was the POW/MIA flag, which came about in 1971 to remember those who hadn’t made it home yet.

That’s a flag people like Culler see a little bit differently than most of us. And on Saturday, he saw it in the dirt.

— Dan Shearer