Stars and stripes fore
Capital Electric - July 1, 2011
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Capital member Dan Dacar works part-time at the airport and volunteers for the Veterans Administration, driving veterans to Fargo for hospital appointments. His wife, Bonnie, works for Medcenter One in Bismarck. The couple married one year after Dan's military service ended. They have five grown children and seven grandchildren, and Dan says he and Bonnie are "very proud of every one of them." |
After he graduated from Scranton High School in 1967, Dan Dacar wanted to join the military and serve his country. He took a physical and was prepared to pack his bags. But the U.S. Army told him he could not become a soldier because he had a heart murmur and flat feet.
Then the draft was introduced, and Dan was lucky number six in the lottery. Even though he didn't think the Army would take him, he was asked to take another physical.
"They said, 'Your feet are just fine and you don't have a heart murmur. You're good. Go!'" Dan chuckles as he remembers.
After receiving basic training in Washington State and advanced individual training at Fort Huachuca in southeastern Arizona, Dan was sent to Vietnam on July 4, 1968. He spent the next two years working as an aide to a colonel. Because he volunteered to extend his service with two additional campaigns, Dan was discharged after almost three years and processed out of Fort Carson, Colo.
To show the pride he feels in having served his country, and to honor the men and women who have enlisted so that we may continue to enjoy our many freedoms, Dan decorates his lawn with flags three times a year. Just prior to each Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veterans Day, he carefully and methodically lines his lawn with colorful and meaningful flags. The ones surrounding a rock pile represent the states where his grown children reside. And the mass of red, white and blue that flicker just below the front porch represent the states in the order in which they were added to the Union, starting with the 13 original colonies.
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One of Dan and Bonnie's grandsons, Mason Gerber, holds grandma's hand as he admires grandpa's handiwork. Mason is the son of Amber and Brad Gerber. |
Dan, a member of Capital Electric Cooperative in north Bismarck, says he could not order the American flags in this particular size with a reduced amount of stars to represent when the states were added - so he made them.
"It was a lot of work," he shares, "but I figured if I couldn't make it look presentable, then I wasn't going to deface it."
To modify the flags, which he purchased with 50 stars, Dan took fabric paint and covered the stars. Then he bought stars and ironed them on, according to however many a particular flag needed to have to represent when a certain state was added to the Union.
Dan and his wife, Bonnie, moved into the Capital Electric service area five years ago, and Dan has decorated the lawn for the past three years.
One of his neighbors, April Mechle, reveals Dan's secret to making the flags look so uniform.
"He made a tool so that each flag is exactly the same distance apart," she says. "He definitely takes pride in his flags."
Even though it takes a considerable amount of time to hand-plant more than 200 flags, Dan says the "work" is enjoyable, and that he plans to continue the tradition as long as he can. It is one of the many ways in which he shows his patriotism and commitment to country.
"I am proud to have served," he concludes.
Capital Electric thanks Dan and Bonnie for sharing their story, and thanks all the service men and women who fought and continue to fight so that we may be free.
The American flag consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing 50 small, white, five pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states and the 13 stripes represent the 13 colonies that became the first states in the Union.