If you walk past the wooden gazebo at Veterans Field today, you will notice the flagpole is bare. To a casual observer, it looks like a routine lapse in municipal maintenance. But that empty pole is actually the center of a quiet, stubborn standoff between a local resident and a town administration that refuses to install a proper light fixture.

The disappearing flag isn't an act of vandalism. It is an exercise in unilateral patriotism.

The conflict is rooted in the United States Flag Code, which dictates that an American flag flown 24 hours a day must be properly illuminated during the hours of darkness. For a town managing an $18 million budget, placing a spotlight on a pole should be a basic civic task. Yet in Sherman, it has triggered a multi-year cycle of confiscations.

The First Encounter

I first witnessed this dynamic in 2024. While passing through Veterans Field, I watched a local man unclip the flag from the halyard. When approached, he didn’t flinch or retreat. He simply offered a calm, principled justification: the flag was not properly lit at night, and flying it in the dark was a violation of protocol.

The flag vanished. A short time later, the Department of Public Works installed a replacement. Almost as quickly, it disappeared again.

A neighbor confirmed she had watched the exact same man removing the colors. We had the culprit and the motive. When lines of communication were still open with First Selectman Don Lowe, I informed him of the situation directly. Town Hall knew exactly who was taking the flag, and exactly why.

The Bureaucratic Half-Measure

Presented with a highly solvable problem—a resident removing a town asset due to inadequate lighting—the administration responded with a bureaucratic half-measure.

Rather than installing a hardwired spotlight fitting for a public memorial, the town affixed a small solar-powered fixture to the pole. A new flag went up. At night, the solar light cast a weak glow—falling well short of the dignified illumination required by federal code, but enough of a compromise to halt the removals for a few months.

However, as winter set in and the solar battery struggled against shortened, overcast days, the light failed. Unsurprisingly, the pole went bare again for the duration of the cold months.

The Spring Offensive

That brings us to this past week. With the arrival of spring, a new American flag was hoisted above Veterans Field. The town had restaked its claim.

It was short-lived. This morning, my phone buzzed with a text message from a neighbor: "Notice the flag is gone"

A walk through the park this afternoon confirmed it. The halyard clinked against bare aluminum. My neighbor revealed she had just spoken to the man about his latest confiscation. His response was remarkably consistent.

The solar lighting, he informed her, still isn't right. It lacks the wattage to properly illuminate the flag. Until the Town of Sherman fixes the hardware, he made it clear: he will keep taking the flags down.

The standoff at Veterans Field continues. It is a uniquely local dispute: a resident taking matters into his own hands to enforce a federal standard that Town Hall refuses to meet. Until the administration figures out how to properly wire a spotlight, the resident will continue to ensure that if the town insists on keeping the flag in the dark, they won't have a flag to fly at all.