Apr 25, 2004 By Steve Ferris 3 min read

American Legion Post 51 is offering a $100 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or people who committed what a Legion official called an “act of terrorism.” One of the 850 American flags that the post has placed along downtown Uniontown streets was cut from its pole. About an inch strip of Old Glory was left parallel to the aluminum pole before it was taken down.

Dale Monaghan of Barton’s Flower Shop on Morgantown Street said he called city police and the American Legion after he discovered the desecrated flag in front of the store when he showed up for work around 9 a.m. Friday.

Police Chief Kyle Sneddon is urging anybody with information about the flag to contact the department by calling 911. He said officers, while on patrol, will try to keep an eye on the flags.

“We’re not going to sit idly by and let someone desecrate the flag,” Sneddon said. “People die for that flag.”

Monaghan said the flag was intact when he left work the night before at 8 or 9 p.m.

“I don’t know why someone would do that,” he said.

Post 51’s Joe T. Joseph, Americanism chairman of the American Legion Department of Pennsylvania, said there have been a number of recent incidents involving the flags.

“We have a total of seven flags that have been either torn or ripped or thrown to the ground,” Joseph said. “I feel there must be terrorists running around. It’s a federal offense.”

Two flagpoles in front of the post on North Gallatin Avenue were bent so severely that they had to be removed.

“Eric Hull grew up a block from the Legion,” Joseph said, referring to the local soldier who died last year while serving in Iraq.

“We call this a real act of terrorism,” he said. “Flags are an honor and tribute to those who fought for the United States.”

He said the post displays the flags every summer, but put them out earlier than usual this year to show support for American troops in Iraq. The Legion also dispersed 50 Prisoners of War/Missing in Action flags throughout the county.

The post purchases the flags through donations, and 75 have been stolen over the years, he said.

“We’re proud of Old Glory. We really are,” he said.

An estimated 25,000 spectators are expected to attend the post’s Americanism Day parade on Saturday, he said.

Joseph noted that hundreds of county residents are traveling to Washington, D.C., on May 26 for the unveiling of the World War II monument. Four busloads of people are leaving from Uniontown, while others are going by train and their own vehicles, he said.