Angry veterans in Hamburg say it’s not which flag was hoisted on the flagpole in front of Town Hall earlier this month, but which flag was taken down to make room for it.
The town Coalition for Equity and Inclusion raised the Pride flag below the American flag June 2 as part of the observance of Pride Month.
A POW/MIA flag was taken down, upsetting some veterans — including a Vietnam War vet charged with harassing the town supervisor — and prompting calls for a demonstration at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Town Hall to support veterans, prisoners of war and those missing or killed in action, as well as object to the actions of Supervisor Randy Hoak, whom they blame for the incident.
Amy Owczarczak, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1419, said on Facebook that her VFW post is not organizing the gathering Saturday, but several veterans in the post and outside groups are organizing it.
“I do not tolerate hate against race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability. Anyone within the post, whether it be a member or a guest will abide by our standards. Otherwise, they will be asked to leave,” Owczarczak said in the social media post.
Hoak told The Buffalo News this week the POW/MIA flag was frayed and tattered, and needed to be replaced.
Veterans who are upset said that was not made clear before or on June 2, and if they had known, they would have presented a new one to the town the same day.
A transgender veteran who attended the Pride flag raising said she is the one who discovered the POW/MIA flag was tattered, and feels responsible for the controversy. She said on a Facebook video shot immediately after the flag-raising that the flag was damaged and would go back up.
“I’m the one who said it needed to be taken down because the flag was tattered, I was helping to take the flag down,” said Diana Patton, a former U.S. Navy hull technician.
Patton told The Buffalo News this week she had served in color guards in the Navy and for an American Legion post. She said the POW/MIA flag is very important to her, because her grandfather was a POW three times during World War II. And the Pride flag means just as much to her because she said veterans served and fought for others to have the freedom to express who they are.
“The POW/MIA flag should not be used in this manner, same thing with the Pride flag,” Patton said. “Neither one is supposed to be political.”
It isn’t just a flag that has been frayed.
Some veterans are angry over what they see as the supervisor’s cavalier attitude toward them and the flag.
John Grotke, commander of Post 527 American Legion, called Hoak a “classless buffoon” in a letter he sent to the supervisor.
“He can call me a classless buffoon,” Hoak said this week, “and I still want to talk to his organization about how we can build a better Hamburg, a more patriotic Hamburg, how we can educate this next generation on the importance of our veterans, our veterans organizations and respect for the flag.”
He said the town had no intention of removing the POW/MIA flag, even temporarily.
Upset veterans said there were mounts on the pole for only two flags until Monday.
Hoak said the town had the equipment to add a third flag last week, but did not add it before Monday because there were only two flags.
That’s when a new POW/MIA flag was hoisted, in the second position beneath the American flag, with the Pride flag underneath both.
Flying interest climbs
Grotke said he presented the town with the POW/MIA flag last year, and hoped the town would install an additional pole for other flags.
Hoak said the POW/MIA flag was hoisted last July after the Pride flag was taken down at the end of Pride Month. The POW/MIA flag also was taken down last November, when a flag commemorating Native American Month was raised.
Grotke said at the annual Memorial Day ceremony he asked Hoak what his intentions were for the Pride flag, and was told it would be raised under the American flag.
“I said, ‘Don’t you think there are better options available,'” Grotke recalled.
“It means so much to us veterans, the POW/MIA flag. It means more than anything imaginable,” he said.
Congress in 1990 officially recognized the black-and-white silhouette flag and designated it as the symbol of the nation’s concern and commitment to resolving as fully as possible the fates of Americans still prisoner, missing and unaccounted for in Southeast Asia.
Tensions mount
On June 2, Gerald Welsted, a former commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1417, was driving past Town Hall. He noticed people in front of the flagpole, and that the POW/MIA flag was missing. Hoak said Welsted expressed his concerns with “great profanity,” and he walked the veteran away from the group, which included high school students.
“When I was able to get him to the perimeter of the gathering was when he expressed his frustration with slapping my forearm,” Hoak said.
Welsted would not talk with a reporter this week, said his friend and fellow Vietnam veteran Russ Deveso, who told The News it would be difficult for him to imagine a circumstance when Welsted would hit someone.
“All veterans take an oath to defend the flag,” Deveso said. “That POW/MIA flag is just as important as the American flag.”
“This has kind of been a nightmare, and it shouldn’t have been,” Deveso added.
Hoak said he called police, and Welsted was charged with harassment.
The town received an application for a permit for the Saturday demonstration from Hamburg Lakeshore Overseas Veterans, and the event has been promoted on the Facebook pages of the Constitutional Coalition of Western New York, which says it is a “gathering place for patriots and protectors of the Constitution,” and the 1791 Society, a local gun rights group.
The supervisor, a Democrat elected in 2021, said his family has a rich military tradition and respect for service. He said he would continue to march and advocate for veterans at the town and state level.
Hoak said his office is looking into improved local property tax exemptions for seniors and veterans, and the town plans to install a parking spot reserved for Purple Heart recipients later this summer.
The town got a lot of pushback over the missing POW/MIA flag last weekend, he said, but the tone and tenor of phone calls to his office changed starting Monday, when all three flags were hoisted on the pole.
“They understand,” Hoak said, “and they’re glad that the POW/MIA flag is back up.”
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