Community Corner

Ballwin Neighbors Restore Veteran's Faith In His Country

Pranksters had left a Korean War veteran "crushed" after 100 American flags the man had placed around a Ballwin neighborhood were stolen.




Walter Schoenke, a Ballwin resident who survived Pearl Harbor and later served in the Korean War, placed 100 American flags around his Green Lantern Lane neighorhood just a block away from Highway 141 as a way of saluting his country for the July 4th holiday.

Over the weekend, sometime between midnight Friday and 8 a.m. Saturday, those flags disappeared. Schoenke was crushed.

But his neighbors took note, and took to Facebook to organize a response. Their mission over the past few days was to buy up 100 flags so they could be presented to Schoenke for a surprise.

As the crowd of neighbors gathered in front of his yard, other people driving by who hadn't heard what happened found out, pulled over, and joined in. People of all ages.

When the moment to present them finally came, the element of surprise had been diminished, but the power of the statement was clear for all to see.

"We just want to tell you we appreciate your patriotism and decorating our neighborhood and that we were sad that your flags were gone, so we got you a hundred flags," Robin Ragsdale said, first in line.

Due to some Patch technical difficulties, you can't hear what happened, but you can see it in this accompanying clip. 

One by one, they presented handfuls of flags, with a handshake and a hug in return.

Schoenke was genuinely touched by the gesture, and afterward talked about how devotion to the flag and country had been handed down from his father, along with the importance of the flag in military funerals when flags are presented to families.

He added that if whoever stole the flags wanted to desecrate the flags or their country, they should be punished under the law.

"It was wrong," Nancy Koehler, another neighbor said in talking to reporters. "It was right to do something positive and...get things back in shape."

KSDK-TV was also there for the story. 


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