From the archives: This story was last updated in April 2019.
The Midwest has been pummeled by rain and storms early this spring, causing flood concerns all up and down the Mississippi river while devastating communities.And while there have certainly been bigger problems to tackle, one Missouri sheriff’s deputy and military veteran showed that even little signs of respect make a difference to these communities as they pick up the pieces in the wake of the weather.
Clay County Sheriff’s Deputy Brandon McElroy was driving around the town of Avondale in mid-March when he spotted an American flag hanging from a toppled flagpole, nearly dipping onto the mud-soaked ground.
The home, which he passed routinely on his drives, had a flagpole that once stood proudly in the front yard. The pole had been knocked down in the recent storms. McElroy saw this as an opportunity to what was happening.
Knowing that the homeowner wouldn’t want to see the flag lying on his lawn in such a disrespectful manner, the deputy got out of his patrol car and was captured on the homeowner’s Ring doorbell camera removing the flag and setting it respectfully folded on the front porch instead.
Even though his actions were caught on the camera, McElroy explained that he wasn’t doing it for the attention. “It’s doing the right thing when nobody’s watching,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
McElroy, who served in the Air Force at Whiteman Air Force Base for seven years before joining the police department, hadn’t been driving around looking for flags on the ground. But growing up in a household that preached respect for even the symbols of country and patriotism, he didn’t want to just leave the flag as it was when he saw it on the ground.
“Something as small as that cloth represents a lot in this country, whether it’s the men and women that have died for it or the men and women that wear it to this day serving our country so we can have our freedoms that we have and enjoy the things that we do on an everyday basis,” he explained.
The video of Deputy McElroy has gone viral, but he’s not the only person in Clay County to make sure that the flags have been taken care of during the horrendous weather the region has been having. Another county resident commented on Facebook that their own Ring doorbell camera had caught video of a neighbor going after their own flag, which had blown away in the high winds, and brought it back to their front door to keep it safe.
The gestures don’t take much time, and don’t have much of an ulterior motive. But for a community that’s been busy trying to stay dry and get through the spring, it’s the little moments like these that prove that the right thing is done all the time—even when it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone around to witness it.
