Dusty Rhoads: Fly that flag

Dusty Rhoads has a challenge for his fellow citizens, especially veterans.

He wants everyone to fly the U.S. flag on Tuesday, which is Flag Day, and again on the Fourth of July.

A veteran himself, Rhoads retired from active duty after 26 years of service that included 26 months in Vietnam. At the time of his discharge, he was a master sergeant.

One hot day last week, Rhoads met with The Press at his home in Coeur d’Alene to talk a little about himself, and about the flags that mean so much to him.

As he spoke, a series of U.S. flags waved from poles secured to the railing lining the big front porch of the home Rhoads shares with his wife, Audrey. Nearby, a larger version of the stars and stripes waved from high atop a flag pole in the front yard.

After he retired from the military in 1988, Rhoads moved to Kootenai County and began working for the sheriff’s office. After 13 years, he retired a second time.

“Forty years in uniform was enough,” he said.

But he never stopped serving veterans. For years, Rhoads remained active in organizations that support the men and women who have served in the armed forces.

His participation has slowed in recent years.

“The VFW, the Legion, Disabled Vets, Vietnam Vets of America. I was real active in all of them, but with Audrey’s Parkinson’s, I can’t just leave her very long at a time. If Mark (Audrey’s son) wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be able to go the Legion meeting tonight ... But I don’t begrudge it. Audrey said for years she saw less of me after I retired than when I was working,” Rhoads said.

He keeps busy in other ways these days.

A self-described “gun nut,” Rhoads has been refinishing the stock of a World War II M1. He held it up, the wood grain smooth and gleaming from his work.

“Here, let me show you what Audrey did,” he said, as he walked out the back of the couple’s home where flower beds and manicured bushes spring from a green lawn.

Rhoads met Audrey when he was stationed in England. It was a second marriage for each of them, and between them they have six children.

“Well, she’s English. They have to have their gardens. It’s not called a backyard. It’s a garden. It took her about two summers to do all this,” he said. “I’m real proud of that lady.”

Rhoads said Audrey was a nurse during World War II, when she was about 16.

The couple’s living room walls are lined with evidence of Rhoads’ and his wife’s service. A framed newspaper article about Audrey hangs not far from Rhoads’ medals and a framed letter he received from President Ronald Reagan when he retired.

Respect for the flag and the rights the men and women of the U.S. military have fought and died for are important to Rhoads.

He’s quick with a joke, and his eyes twinkle when someone realizes his hat says: “Dysfunctional Veteran - Leave Me Alone.”

But he’s dead serious about getting people “off their butts” to fly the flag.

Can you tell us about your time in the service? How did that come about?

I went in in ‘62, one jump ahead of the draft board. We used to get the mail once a week, rural mail. My kid brother had already been in the service four years, and I was getting jumpy about the draft. I called him up, he called a recruiter out of the Dakotas. He sent me a bus ticket. I went to Denver Monday morning, and Thursday when the mail came, my induction papers were there - one jump ahead of the draft board. But there was no way in hell I was going to stay in the service. I wanted to move back to Wyoming and be nobody...but I volunteered for Vietnam and then extended it for 26 months..By the time that was over, I had a baby daughter and no job.

What did you do after Vietnam?

I was in weapons so I got assigned to Fairchild and ran a load crew loading bombs and ammo, warheads, that kind of stuff. Then I got hurt doing that so I was in a body cast from the back of my neck down to my toes on one side. I walked like this (curls one arm up and in, and stiffly limps for a few steps) for a long time. They tried to give me a 10 percent disability and throw me out. I said, ‘I can’t live on this, so I stayed.’ Now, I’m 100 percent disabled.

You’re considered a local expert in flag etiquette. Why do you care so much?

You can’t spend all those years in the service stationed all over the world under the auspices of that flag, without it meaning a hell of a lot to you. I’ve flown that flag in Ethiopia, Pakistan, Spain, Korea, Vietnam. I guess I was patriotic enough to volunteer when it (Vietnam) first blew up. Flag Day means an awful lot to me, but besides that, it’s Audrey’s birthday. So I keep flags.

I keep these (points to boxes on a shelf labeled “school hand flags”) and I give them to the school kids.

Years ago, I started going to Atlas Elementary School and they have a special chorus and they teach them the anthems of the different service branches. So I would give the kids flags, and when they sing any song that the words had a flag in it, they’d wave that flag. I taught them how to come to attention, how to salute. So, I buy them by the gross.

Then, you see up there (points to another shelf with neat stacks of boxes of larger flags). And there’s more (points to another stack of boxes). I keep all three sizes.

Most of them are made in Post Falls, did you know that? There’s a company in Post Falls that makes flags for the government. Made in America.

Do you have any frustration with people and the way they treat the flag?

When I first retired and came up here, during the Fourth of July parade, as the colors came down the street, rifle escort, people would just sit on their ass, not take their hat off, or hand over their heart, none of that. And the kids just running and whatnot. And I said, ‘This is bullshit.’ So I started going to the school, teaching them flag etiquette, how to take care of the flag. When we give them to the kids, we explain to them, don’t throw it in the dirt, keep it clean. Put it in your pocket if you need to. Always carry it upright, you know, those kinds of things. If you’re going to put it in the window, put it in the right way. If you want to fly it over the street, there’s a correct way for that.

And within two years, you could see the colors come down the street and the kids said, ‘Dad, get up. Take your hat off. Stand tall.’ Kids were teaching their parents, which we hadn’t done. We, the veterans. So, I spent a lot of years doing that, but I had to turn it over. But I still keep the flags. Yeah, it costs a few dollars. Big deal. It means a lot more than that, so why worry about the dollars it costs.

Those are the kinds of things kids never forget, aren’t they?

They are, especially if you put your Honor Guard uniform on and you go talk to them ... It gives them somebody to look up to (besides) the drug dealers and the other damn idiots running around.

Do you think we do enough of that with kids today?

No. Look at how many went and vote. I missed one election. I was stationed in Tripoli, Libya and got my absentee ballot a month after the election. That was the only election I’ve ever missed. And when I got back to Wyoming, I went right up to the county clerk’s office and read them the riot act. I said, ‘I mailed you that application long before the election.’ That’s the only one I’ve ever missed.

So, you’re troubled by the fact that many citizens choose not to vote?

Yes, it ties right along with this exact same thing (points to the flags)...There is no excuse for anyone in town to not have a flag to fly on Flag Day and then again on the Fourth of July.