Contractor friends donate time, efforts to raise flag, spirits for vet

Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Raising a new flag for retired Air Force veteran Marlin Bartley on the 30-foot flagpole outside his home on Glenview Drive in Greencastle, local contractors Mike Rogers (left) and Nathan Trissel get a little help from Trissel’s young son Porter during the recent undertaking.
Courtesy photos

It may have taken a stroke of luck, a childhood friendship, some timely connections and a major dose of patriotism to pull off but an American flag again waves elegantly and proudly -- and oh so quietly -- in the breeze above the corner of Glenview Drive and Elm Leaf Drive in Greencastle.

Thanks to the efforts of a pair of young contractors -- friends since elementary school but owners of separate local companies -- an 81-year-old retired Air Force man now has a new flag atop the pole in front of his home in the condominium development off the north end of Judson Drive -- just in time for the Fourth of July.

But the story is nowhere near that simple.

Marlin Bartley

When Marlin Bartley moved into that condo, one of two original units built for showing off the development to potential residents, the flagpole was already in place to help attract visitors to the development that has built up around it on the city’s northeast side.

But because of the way the flag was attached, halfway up the 30-foot pole was “a huge piece of metal,” that would clang and bang against the metal mast with the slightest wind flapping the flag.

“It drove us and the neighbors crazy,” Bartley said, noting that the flag ultimately was taken down after several complaints about the noise.

Bartley has always intended to have the noisy flag rigging replaced with a quieter set-up. However, he and daughter Lori -- who lives with Marlin now after the passing of his wife Jean last year -- had exhausted all resources known to them to put Old Glory back on that towering pole.

Enter Mike Rogers, owner of Just R Time Construction, who -- as luck would have it -- was in the process of buying some property off Bartley.

“Long story short, I bought a lot off the guy out at Heritage Lake,” Rogers told the Banner Graphic. “He knew I owned my own construction company, and after signing paperwork and all, he said to me, ‘I have another task that need your help with.”

It was Bartley’s desire to put the stars and stripes back atop that tall pole in front of his house.

“I had people stopping by and asking why the flag was not up,” Bartley explained.

So he seized the opportunity and asked Rogers to shoot him an estimate on what that might cost.

Rogers did better than that.

“As I drove away,” he said, “I thought, ‘I can’t charge this man for putting up a flag.’ I’m not going to do that. I’ve got a nephew overseas fighting for some of the few freedoms we still have.”

When the retired Air Force veteran (1957-77), approached Rogers with the possibility, Bartley said, the reaction was swift and to the point.

“The words that came out of his mouth,” Bartley said, “were, ‘It would be my honor to put your flag up.’”

Rogers subsequently reached out to longtime friend Nathan Trissel, who owns A Cut Above Construction locally, for assistance. And in turn they contacted Tim Shinn about using his lift, which he gladly provided.

So the other night, with winds swirling and a storm approaching, the men ignored the angry skies as the daredevilish Trissel rode that lift to the top to accommodate the new flag, making not just Marlin Bartley’s day but raising the spirits of neighbors and passersby as well.

“Just to see the look on Marlin’s face,” Rogers assured, “that was worth it. Money can’t buy that.”

Bartley, who is also retired from running the accounting and human resource departments at Data Label Inc., Terre Haute, was indeed thrilled with the process after watching the crane ride up “to the top of its apex to reach it.”

In completing the project, Rogers ordered and donated the flag, while Headley Hardware provided the long rope and other items needed for the proper silent-treatment rigging.

Even the neighbors have gotten involved, Bartley said, as one has since provided even better, longer-lasting non-metal catches that won’t clang when they slap the post in the wind, Bartley said.

All in all the generous collaborative effort was undertaken by a couple of proud Americans with the utmost respect for our veterans.

“We took it upon ourselves,” Rogers summarized, “not just to do a good thing but to do the right thing.”

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  • GREAT STORY!

    -- Posted by JJ88 on Wed, Jun 28, 2017, at 11:49 AM
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