To remember homeless vets, 80-foot flag rises above coast

To remember homeless vets, 80-foot flag rises above coast
A.M. READ: Giant version of Old Glory is at American Legion post for 9/11 anniversary.

By JEFF OVERLEY

NEWPORT BEACH – Amid waterfront estates, bright white yachts and blue harbor vistas, an American flag is suddenly the most beautiful sight in town.

This version of Old Glory does have the advantage of being a basketball-court-sized 80-feet-by-50-feet. And it’s conspicuous, dangling above the Balboa Peninsula not from a pole but a towering, crane-like device.

"I was over at Coast Highway. You can see it from there," said Tim Bercovitz, sergeant-at-arms for American Legion Post 291, where the Stars-and-Stripes-on-steroids is being flown to mark the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"That’s an awesome flag," said Lisa Marie Costa, sipping a beverage on the post’s patio Wednesday afternoon.

The awesomeness is courtesy of David Whittaker, 53, who’s on a cross-country trip via wheelchair to raise awareness about homeless veterans.

"They just can’t believe it," Whittaker said of reaction to the flag. "There have been so many people here today – people not even involved with the Legion."

Despite its dimensions, the nylon flag is a relatively lightweight 130 pounds, letting it fly full and strong in the ocean breeze. And in the afternoon sun, the flag looks flawless and resplendent, belying the 4,000-mile journey that it and Whittaker have been on together.

‘A BEAUTIFUL THING’

Whittaker had a military career, but it was short-lived. He suffered a serious eye injury in boot camp in 1973 and was discharged. The eye improved somewhat, but he came to be dogged by other health issues, especially a bad heart, which contributed to financial troubles that left him homeless and in a wheelchair.

One restless night at a Florida hotel last year – "in bed, wide awake, staring at the ceiling" – Whittaker says he "heard God’s voice" telling him to spread the word about veterans who had no beds, no ceilings to stare at.

"I talked with a lot of homeless vets; they said they’d joined to defend our rights and those of other people," Whittaker recalled. "I asked what symbolized that better than anything else."

The answer, time and again, was the nation’s flag. And so that became Whittaker’s emblem for what he saw as an attention-grabbing way to help vets – cross the country in a motorized wheelchair designed by Porsche.

"When I first decided to do this, I was just going to fly a flag off the back of my wheelchair," he said.

During a visit to a V.A. hospital in Indiana, though, he found inspiration in the form of a Dodge auto dealership.

"They had a 300-foot flagpole with a giant flag," Whittaker remembered. "And I just sat there and stared at that flag. I mean, it was just such a beautiful thing."

OBSTACLES EVERYWHERE

Whittaker spoke with the dealer’s owner, who was taken with the cross-country concept and had a giant flag made for him.

He decided to go from Key West, the southernmost spot in the continental United States, to Blaine, Wash., the northwesternmost spot. American Legion posts would put him up along the way, but he’d be alone on long stretches of desolate highway, just him, a duffel bag and the flag, rolling along behind the wheelchair in a small trailer.

The wheelchair, which was donated, maxes out at 26.5 mph, so Whittaker sticks to side-street bike lanes and little-used historic highways, such as Route 66.

No town has ever objected to the enormous flag’s presence, but because of its size, flexibility has been essential. "Wherever anybody lets me put it up, that’s where I put it up," Whittaker said.

"If I get anywhere where they don’t have a crane, you get 70-120 people together, and you pull it open."

Finding room for the flag has turned out to be the least of troubles since Whittaker departed in May. "I’ve had lots of flat tires," he said. "I had 17 flat tires in Florida. Every bridge I crossed, I ran over a fish hook."

Also in Florida, he was drenched by the state’s notorious downpours. In Atlanta, he was mugged. In Louisiana he had a close encounter with an alligator and, in Texas, he sweated in 119-degree heat. On Aug. 28, upon arriving in Newport Beach, he was plowed into by a drunken bicyclist, causing $800 in damage to his wheelchair.

FULFILLMENT

For every frustration, though, there have been small victories. Newspapers and television stations have given him bountiful publicity, helping to highlight his cause.

"I try to accommodate the media," he said. "All I tell them is, I don’t want them to make this a ‘poor-poor-me story,’ because it’s not."

It’s about war heroes, he said, who "are sleeping under bridges, in doorways, on boxes in creek beds."

Whittaker advocates supplying homeless veterans with "small but dignified" manufactured homes. Offers of donations to the cause are common, but Whittaker says he mostly turns them down, telling supporters to wait for him to form a nonprofit.

"I think it’s helped," he said. But "to me, I’m not happy about it until we’re building a lot of homes."

MOVED TO TEARS

If Whittaker meets that goal, he will have had plenty of help. Just in Newport, a company called Rolls High Reach donated use of the crane-like device, the Bike Religion cycling shop fixed the wheelchair, and Holiday Inn Express donated overnight stays.

The flag will be flying through Sunday, even at night, thanks to a pair of spotlights (flag etiquette requires flags be taken down at night if not illuminated).

"Last night was the very first time I’ve seen that flag lit, and it just brought me to tears," Whittaker said Thursday. "There were grown men sitting on the curb yesterday crying."

Once the weekend passes, Whittaker will fold up the flag and motor on to his final destination. And then Orange County’s coast, views and all, might seem just a little less beautiful.