A Korean War veteran awoke early in the morning last week to discover vandals had ripped his Mississippi state flag off his house, burned it and spray painted “BLACKS RULE” on his driveway.
Bob Comans always flies the state flag – which includes the Stars and Bars – next to his American flag.
That was interrupted when someone targeted the Mississippi flag by burning it in the 85-year-old man’s driveway in Pascagoula.
“I looked and just went into really a shock by seeing the flag like that being burned,” Comans tells WLOX.
“It’s a racist and a hate. If they’re going to burn your flag, take your flag off the side of your house and burn it, why wouldn’t that be hatred?” he wonders.
Comans says he fought in Korea to preserve freedom, including flying the flag.
“I’m 85 years of age. I’m a 100-percent disabled veteran. I don’t know why they want to burn my flag,” he tells the news station.
He views the flag as heritage and not hate.
His great-grandfather served in the 12th Mississippi Cavalry during the Civil War.
“That’s my flesh and blood. He fought for a cause back when he was there,” according to Comans.
“We’re all like family around here, so it’s just crazy how something that like will happen to someone who doesn’t do anything to no one in the neighborhood,” says Willie Edwards, Comans’ neighbor across the street.
“I think whoever done it needs to be punished for something that stupid, because that ain’t nothing but ignorance and something needs to happen to them,” Edwards, a black man, adds.
Comans vows he will not be deterred by the vandals.
“I may put this same old flag back up and let it flop in the air after it had been burned, so everybody can see,” he says. “You can rest assured, it’ll be flown.”
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