Vandals Destroy American Flag, Tucson Business Determined To Raise It Again

Quebedeaux Mitsubishi's American flag before and after vandals struck. [Photos from Facebook]

On Friday, November 3, witnesses saw what appeared to be teenagers cutting down the American flag at Quebedeaux Mitsubishi. On Monday, employees found the ashes of that flag on the ground beneath where it once proudly flew.

Terry Hatton, sales manager for Quebedeaux Mitsubishi, posted the details of the desecration on Facebook. “So I am a little at a loss for words to try and describe how this feels …. Here goes ….at Quebedeaux Mitsubishi we have flown a 20 X 30 ft American flag over the lot proudly since day one,” wrote Hatton. “The jets from Davis-Monthan tip their wings to this proud flag during fly by and most folks driving down Speedway in either direction ,enjoy the red white and blue as she curls and unfurls over Speedway reminding all of us that we are free by the grace of God and the fighting men that have given their lives and sacrificed family and friends to keep us FREE … Last night some piece of shit lowered our flag to the ground and soaked it in some sort of fuel and burned our beloved old glory at the bottom of the pole…. This individual has assaulted everyone at Quebedeaux Automotive and we will not forget.”

In an appearance on the James T. Harris show, Hatton discussed the discovery of the ashes and the outpouring of support the company has received in response to his Facebook post.

An American flag has flown over the dealership since 1958. “It has become an icon in Tucson,” Hatton told Harris. “I know for me when I come to work in the morning – I get to Campbell and Speedway and I see the flag it just makes me comfortable. I love them, but again it’s just not there anymore. But it will be again.”

“We have had a major flag in front of the business since 1958,” explained Hatton. “This is the family. This is the Quebedeaux family. There’s not a single day that you can’t get into the store and have there be a Quebedeaux on the premises. They work at it. They’re invested in it. The flag mean something to them. It means something to the 140 employees they’ve got. Everybody has bought into the flag.”

“When I was in my first year at Quebedeaux – I had not been exposed to it before – but the month that I got here was the month that Davis Monthan did their air show. On the kick off the day, we had to F-16s come in, probably 500 feet above the flag, tip their wing both ways to salute the flag. It was really touching,” said Hatton.

Hatton described coming in Friday morning and one of the store’s neighbors walked advised him that the flag was missing. The neighbor said he believed someone stole it. “So I walked outside and looked up at it, and he was right; there was no flag on the pole. So I walked over to see what happened and I looked down and realize there’s a huge pile of ashes at the bottom of the pole.”

According to Hatton, one gentleman came to the dealership “at about 5 o’clock and said that he observed a couple of kids that looked young standing by the fire and that was at 4:30 in the morning. So obviously it had been observed, and he told me that when he called the police there had already been a 911 call about it. So they had at least two 9-1-1- calls about it.”

When Harris asked Hatton to describe the response he has gotten to his Facebook post, Hatton said, “It’s really nuts. We’ve had tons of private citizens offer to donate money, to replace the flag. It’s been really heartwarming that there are that many folks that absolutely do not condone the burning of the American flag. It’s an important piece for most folks, and I’ve got to tell you, I’ve had 2500 shares. I’ve had probably 1500 of those little emoji things,” said Hatton referring to Facebook symbols, “and we’ve had 700-and-some-odd comments to the post. I guess this is what they mean when it’s got legs.”

“We’re repairing the pole. We’ve already got a new flag, so everybody,” said Hatton to the listening audience, “we don’t need a new flag or donations of money. It’ll be fine again – certainly before Veterans Day. We’ve even discussed doing a raising of the flag on Veterans Day, but I will tell you this will be on your Facebook page and on our Facebook page. We will absolutely confirm that there will be an event. We want to raise the flag. We want to make it special on Veterans Day. We were really concerned we wouldn’t be able to meet our deadline, but with the electrical company we’ve contracted with; we should be just fine. So we should be ready to raise that flag on Saturday morning,” said a determined Hatton.

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