A veteran in Virginia Beach, Virginia, took it upon himself to climb a flag pole at a Navy SEAL monument to secure an American flag that had broken loose on Thursday.
Dom Raso, who is a former Navy SEAL, said he had just finished his morning run when he saw that the flag flying at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront Navy SEAL monument was out of place.
“Flag needed to be fixed at the Navy SEAL monument this morning,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “After a 3.5 mile run and smoked from the previous attempts, This was my 4th attempt at trying to get up and fix the flag.”
“I couldn’t go by this flag this morning and not give it everything I had,” Raso wrote on Instagram. “The gold stars on this monument and the sacrifice that has been made for us all was something I wasn’t just going to pass by. This flag pole climb reminded me about EVERYTHING in life.”
In a second post, the veteran used the incident as a way to encourage his fellow Americans to “step up and do what is right.”
Raso continued:
It doesn’t take many, it just takes a determined and convicted few. I believe with all my heart and soul there is a wave of patriots in this country growing in strength and confidence each day. While we watch parts of our country fall to mainstream confusion, complacency, and ignorance, there is a few that are willing to climb or stand or do what ever it takes. The greatest way to live is by our actions. EVERY SINGLE DAY we are given an opportunity. It’s a choice. We either take it or we don’t.
The former Navy SEAL concluded the post with a scripture reference from 1 Peter 2:15.
“For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people,” he wrote.
Raso’s patriotic gesture comes after protesters tore down an American flag and replaced it with a Mexican flag outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Colorado on July 12, Breitbart News reported.
However, once the crowd had dispersed, officials restored the flag to its proper place.