"When a vet gets stepped on, we all get stepped on," said Bob McGuire, president of the Korean War veterans association.
The veterans joined together to replace Kirkland's flagpole and three flags that hung from it. In early August, someone took the 20-foot-long aluminum pole Kirkland had been using to fly the American, POW/MIA and Agent Orange flags in honor of his fellow Vietnam veterans for the past eight years.
"I went to war to fight for the right for someone to burn the flag, but not to steal it," said Sam McCloud, a Vietnam veteran and commandant for the Marine Corps League Volusia Detachment 658.
Kirkland flies that flag to honor other veterans like himself, who suffer from the effects of Agent Orange. The 64-year-old has survived two bouts of cancer believed traced to the Vietnam-era herbicide made from dioxin.
