THE FLAG OVER FLETCHER HILLS

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By Ray Bello

April 21, 2022 (El Cajon) -- If you live in Fletcher Hills, El Cajon, San Carlos, San Diego or near Parkway Middle School, La Mesa, you’ve probably driven by the star-spangled flag atop the flagpole at the intersection of Fletcher Parkway and Navajo Road many times without really seeing it.     

Our national anthem asks the question:  “Oh say can you see…that our flag was still there?”

Thanks to the Optimist Club of Cowles Mountain, the flagpole was erected and dedicated on July 28, 1968 for the community of Fletcher Hills and surrounding communities of East County to See.

Thanks also to the Kiwanis Club of Fletcher Hills. Since the early 1980s it has, as the plaque at the base of the flagpole states, “maintained it in perpetuity.”  

This means replacing the flag when it gets worn and tattered, usually yearly, and replacing the flood lights when needed.  If you ever walk across that intersection, you will see this plaque at the base of the flagpole.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kurt Kendall (pictured left), a long time Fletcher Hills real estate agent, is also the Kiwanis Club’s keeper of the flag, hoisted a new Old Glory in March 2022.  Kendall says flags that fly 24 hours a day last about one year.   

Flag Protocols: 

It’s a universal custom to display the flag from sunrise to sunset.  Military bases and ships at sea worldwide have a morning flag raising reveille ceremony and flag lowering taps ceremony at night.

However, the flag may be displayed 24 hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.

Historical Note:

 In 2008, Naval officer Jon Lindsay (who served as the Chief Information Officer at the US Naval Warfare Compound, Camp Shane Patton, in Fallujah, Iraq) presented his father, Lowell Lindsay, a retired Naval officer and member of the Fletcher Hills Kiwanis Club, with an American flag that flew over the Camp in Falluja to fly over Fletcher Hills.

The Fletcher Hills American flag flies all day and night because it is properly illuminated by flood lights at the base of the flagstaff that literally light it up.

Disposing of Old Glory:

Old, torn and tattered flags can be dropped off at the Fletcher Hills Library, 576 Garfield Ave, El Cajon or any San Diego County library, fire stations or VFW Posts.  

The former East County newspaper, The Daily Californian, printed an article about the 50 most interesting things found in San Diego’s East County. The flagstaff and of course flag that proudly and patriotically waves atop it, came in at #50! 

So long may our flag wave over Fletcher Hills and  “o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

 


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