A U.S. Marine veteran said he was fired from his contract job with Time Warner Cable after he lowered the American flag to half-staff on Memorial Day.
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Allen Thornwell, a 29 year old veteran that served in both Afghanistan and Iraq says he was thinking about his best friend, Geoff who was a former Marine that committed suicide two years ago, when he lowered the flag to half staff, the Charlotte Observer reported.
A manager for the placement service that helped Thornwell get the job at Time Warner Cable also was the one to tell him that he was fired last Tuesday because the company was bothered by his “passion for the flag and political affiliation.”
Thornwell said he was called to work from 2-7 p.m on Memorial Day and after arriving noticed the flag at full staff. He took it upon himself to lower the flag to half staff around 2:30 p.m. The U.S. Flag Code Policy states that a flag only needs to be kept at half staff until noon on Memorial Day.
One of the guards told Thornwell, “It’s company policy that no one touches the flagpole.” A few minutes later, the flag was back to full staff.
“He didn’t do anything wrong. He’s a veteran working on Memorial Day who corrected what he thought was a disrespectful flying of the American flag … I would have taken it down myself,” Thornwell’s attorney, Murphy Archibald told the Charlotte Observer.
“I didn’t think of it as the property of Time Warner Cable,” Thornwell said. “It’s everybody’s flag.”
Thornwell worked in technical support and as a radio operator in the military which helped him land a job as a troubleshooter for Time Warner Cable.
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