A heartbroken Massachusetts mom is demanding accountability after seeing American flags be destroyed as soon as extra on a Cape Cod bridge named in honor of her Purple Coronary heart son.
The Yarmouth Police Division says it has ramped up patrols of all overpasses on the town after eight flags had been vandalized and positioned the wrong way up on the Lance Cpl. William Joseph Donovan Jr. Memorial Bridge over the weekend.
Jane Donovan, the mom of the bridge’s namesake, says she want to see site visitors cameras put in on the overpass to assist legislation enforcement seize any future culprits, noting Saturday’s incident is the most recent in a troubling sample.
“Something has to be done, in my eyes,” the Quincy lady informed the Herald on Tuesday, by tears.
The bridge honors William Joseph Donovan Jr., a U.S. Marine who acquired two Purple Coronary heart medals in 2011 for accidents suffered throughout Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He died in 2015 at age 27 in a deadly motorbike crash in Canton.
The state Legislature designated the bridge, spanning Route 6, in his honor in 2017.
Jane Donovan highlighted how she and her household have seen the overpass maintain vandalism all through the years. Prior to now, a bridge signal and flags have been destroyed and eliminated, whereas nobody has been held accountable, she mentioned.
“We don’t know who it is,” Donovan mentioned. “Is it somebody who has mental issues? We don’t know a single soul who would ever do anything to our flag. It is very nerve-wracking, and it has deeply saddened me not just because it’s my son’s bridge, but how dare anybody do that.”
The mom mentioned she discovered in regards to the destroyed flags on Saturday evening, receiving a name from state Rep. Steven Xiarhos, a Cape Cod Republican who misplaced his son on the age of 21 in a roadside bombing in Helmand province, Afghanistan, in 2009.
Xiarhos’ son, Nicholas G. Xiarhos, who served as a Marine corporal, and William Donovan turned shut pals, with the 2 graduating collectively from Dennis-Yarmouth Regional Excessive Faculty in 2006. Donovan enlisted following Xiarhos’ dying.
One other Yarmouth bridge honors Xiarhos’ son. He informed the Herald on Tuesday that he’s deeply bothered by the vandalism on Donovan’s bridge, calling it “cowardly,” “calculated,” and “wrong.”
Xiarhos mentioned that each one eight of the destroyed American flags had their corners lower out of them, whereas some had been torn, and others appeared to have some form of substance splattered on them. The flags had been turned over to the Yarmouth Police Division as proof, he mentioned.
Yarmouth PD informed the Herald that it has elevated police patrols on the entire overpasses within the mid-Cape city in response to the incident.
The Nicholas G. Xiarhos Memorial Fund is masking the price of changing the flags, which could have grommets put in on all 4 corners after they’re produced at an area Barnstable store.
The aim is to have the flags in time for the sixteenth annual Huge Nick’s Experience, a motorbike caravan drawing Marines and supporters from everywhere in the nation, on Sunday, Xiarhos mentioned.
“When it comes to the American flag, that’s not just a piece of cloth,” he mentioned. “That’s the symbol of freedom, known all over the world. When you do something disrespectful to the American flag, that hurts people who have served and defended under it.”
Jim Seymour, the chief director of the Cape and Islands Veterans Outreach Heart, echoed Xiarhos, saying he felt “discouraged and disheartened” when he discovered in regards to the latest incident.
“Sometimes it gets lost what the flag truly stands for,” Seymour informed the Herald.
“So many people didn’t get to come home, and fought under that flag,” he added, “and provided them the right to do that action that they did, honestly, I feel, to disgrace the flag and desecrate the flag.”
Jane Donovan, 68, recounted being introduced as much as “respect the flag” and parenting her son to do the identical. Within the rapid aftermath of 9/11, she recalled how she and her son purchased a white sheet that they painted the celebs and stripes on, on their storage flooring.
“If you’re in this country, you need to respect our flag,” Donovan mentioned. “I don’t care if you’re American-born or if you are an immigrant; you need to learn to respect our flag. It stands for much more than a political thing, in my eyes.”
