THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 22, 1996 TAG: 9606220256
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 90 lines
For two days, Arthur Singleton sat pained and speechless on his porch and stared at the void in his front yard.
The towering white flagpole planted solidly in cement looked naked, exposed, empty.
Not long ago, when a stiff breeze curled through Singleton's Indian Lakes neighborhood, the pole's three flags would snap to attention, just as Singleton did when he was presented with the Stars and Stripes nearly three decades ago by his Marine Corps commander in Vietnam.
Sometime before dawn on Father's Day, someone sneaked into the disabled veteran's yard and stole his American, Marine Corps and Navy flags from the 25-foot pole.
``I'm very protective of him; he's been through a lot,'' said his wife, Sandy. ``That flag meant the world to him.''
Sandy Singleton can't talk about the theft without crying. Her husband, 50, can't talk about it at all.
His deep voice sometimes doesn't finish the sentences he starts.
He doesn't talk about the war and he doesn't talk about how much the loss of his flags has hurt him.
But his wife says it has torn at his heart.
``The value? I can't put money on it,'' Arthur Singleton said.
In 1969, Singleton was done fighting in Vietnam. Wounded in battle and facing a medical discharge, Singleton accepted the American flag from his commanding officer in Philadelphia.
Then, the officer and Singleton's Marine buddies returned to the turmoil. The commander and many of Singleton's friends died there.
For 25 years, Singleton's wife and childhood sweetheart, Sandy, kept the flag preserved in a box while he kept his war memories preserved deep inside.
But in 1994, two years after the couple moved here from Baltimore, Sandy Singleton thought it was time to finally raise the colors.
As a surprise to celebrate their 29th anniversary, Sandy Singleton ordered the flagpole. It arrived in a truck in early July. Civic league complaints arrived soon after.
The Indian Lakes Homeowners' Association didn't mind small, unobtrusive poles bolted to the fronts of the one- and two-story houses on Esher Court.
But a 25-foot staff jutting above the neighborhood roofs, well, that was another matter.
Undaunted, and with the neighborhood association's grudging approval, the Singletons planted the pole on the morning of July 4. The retired Marine - his gray hair thick and still cut in a military flat-top - briskly ran the flag up the pole, and he cried.
``I lost a lot of friends in Vietnam,'' Singleton said. ``The flag represents them.''
A short time later, his wife bought the Marine Corps flag, which took its place just below Old Glory.
And when the Marine flag began aging, one of the Singletons' friends returned from California with a replacement.
Then, the Singletons' mostly-Navy neighbors chipped in and bought the couple a Navy flag, which also adorned the pole.
In the two years the pole has presided over Esher Court, it has welcomed military families to the neighborhood, Sandy Singleton said.
``It makes people feel like they're home, like they're in a good place,'' she said.
But soon, the aging Stars and Stripes began unraveling. Its edges became frayed, and Sandy thought it was time to replace it. She wanted to put it in a display box, but her husband balked.
``He said, `It's tattered like we were when we came home,' '' Sandy recalled. ``He said, `She's not going anywhere.' ''
The American flag stayed and so did the others. Until last week.
The retired Marine usually lowers the flags at dusk, but a full day of play with his 7-month-old grandson on June 15 wore him out. The couple slept with the flags still outside.
The next morning, Sandy Singleton awoke to the clanging of unsecured ropes.
The flags were gone, and for two days her husband sat on the porch and stared blankly at the pole.
``He waited so long to put that flag up, and to have someone take it . . him another one, and he said I just didn't understand. But I do understand. It hurts him, it does. It was for all the guys in Vietnam who didn't come back.''
The Singletons don't want to prosecute anyone. They just want the flags returned, and they've offered a $50 reward. The Police Department's Crime Solvers tip line is also offering a reward. Anyone with information on the flags is asked to call 427-0000.
Callers to the tip line can remain anonymous.
The Singletons are hoping someone will return their treasures in time to fly them again on the Fourth of July. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
The theft of Arthur Singleton's flags - U.S., Marine, Navy - from
his Virginia Beach home has left his flag pole and his heart empty.
KEYWORDS: ROBBERIES FLAGS by CNB