ALLAGASH, Maine — Linwood Flora has just one request of the thief or thieves who removed two flags from a veterans memorial in front of the Allagash town office.
“If the people that did it hear about it, bring them back — no questions asked,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
A Vietnam veteran, Flora served in the U.S. Army from 1965-67 and has maintained the memorial since the town first installed it in 1999.
“It’s a large granite monument with all the [Allagash] veterans names on it. The flags are directly behind the monument. It had three of them — the Maine flag, the American flag and the POW flag,” he said.
The monument honors veterans from the Civil War, World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War, according to the town’s website.
Missing from the memorial are the prisoner of war and American flags. The Maine flag was left behind on its flagpole.
Allagash First Selectman David Potter said Wednesday that he noticed the flags were missing on July 7, but he did not report the crime to police. He said he resigned himself to the fact that the flags were unlikely to be returned.
Flora reported the crime to the Maine State Police when he first learned about the theft on July 20. Trooper Matthew Curtin is investigating the crime.
Potter said whoever removed the POW flag and American flag also unlatched the Maine flag but failed to remove it from the pole. He speculated that whoever was involved got spooked by something, possibly an approaching vehicle.
Potter also said he was suspicious of a brown pickup truck containing two unknown men he saw driving behind the town office on July 6.
“They really had no business being here,” he said.
A retired truck driver and woods worker, Flora said that he is a member of a local committee that oversees the monument, and that he was selected to maintain it.
“I’m the closest one to the monument, so I just kind of take care of the flags and the monument and put flowers on it and wreaths.”
He added that other local veterans also help maintain the monument.
Flora estimated the cost of the two missing flags at about $100 for both, but he said the value of the missing flags far outweighs a monetary figure.
“It’s not the money. It’s just the matter that someone would do that, and you’re desecrating veterans doing that,” a disheartened Flora said.
Potter plans to order new flags to replace the missing ones in time for the Allagash Wilderness Waterway 50th anniversary celebration that will take place Aug. 20 at the local community center, which houses the town office.
When contacted this week, Curtin said the theft remains under investigation and he urged anyone with information to call the Maine State Police Houlton barracks at 532-5400.