Looked at one way, flags are pieces of cloth where various colors and designs were arranged into symbols that were stitched together, just as you would find in a blanket or piece of clothing.
However, it’s those very symbols and the meaning that people attach to them that give flags a value far greater than the cloth they are made of.
And this is the reason why one Nevada Highway patrolman has received a lot of praise for rescuing an American flag that was left abandoned on a shoulder along a busy Las Vegas-area highway.
Watch the patrol pull over for the flag below.
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Video credit: Rumble
A Facebook video shared by the Nevada Highway Patrol shows the part when Trooper Jason Buratczuk, who is also an Air Force veteran, pull over at the northbound lane of Interstate 15 near Sahara Avenue.
Buratczuk told FOX5, “It’s not just a piece of fabric. It’s a symbol of our country. People have bled and died for that.”
The officer’s keen eyes first spotted the flag along the northbound lanes before driving past it. But he couldn’t let it be and circled back so that he could retrieve it.
“I was thinking, ‘How could someone let this fall off their car?'”
With cars zipping past, the video shows Buratczuk getting out of his car to get the wayward flag.
The highway patrol said that Buratczuk then proceeded to a local American Legion Lodge for proper retirement. The American Legion properly retires flags through a burning ceremony that occurs every six months.
Nevertheless, police officials advise drivers who may spot other abandoned flags on the road not to stop and pick it up themselves for safety reasons. Instead, they should contact NHP so that a trooper can be sent to retrieve it.
Buratczuk’s father, brother, cousins, and grandparents have also served in the Armed Forces so the flag holds special importance to him.
“Maybe we’d be better off if we take a minute and think of what the flag represents, and what it means to people,” he told FOX5.
Replaced!