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Some see red over no red, white and blue on Veterans Day

Fayetteville residents complained Wednesday after a local post office failed to fly the flag on Veterans Day.

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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Some area residents were still incensed Wednesday that the Haymount Post Office didn't fly the flag on Veterans Day.

In a community so close to Fort Bragg, with so many veterans and military families, they said the flag should have been flying high.

"I think they ought to have done something (Tuesday)," Stedman resident Anne Griffin said. "(With) Fayetteville being an Army town, the people here need to support the veterans and do all we can for them because they fought for us."

Fayetteville businessman Ralph White said he complained to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s office and to 7th District Congressman Mike McIntyre’s office. He said he was assured the flag would be flying next Veterans Day.

"(It's) kind of strange. It used to be the United States Postal Service. Have they changed their name?" Fayetteville resident Janie Burton said.

Enola Rice, a Postal Service spokeswoman in Charlotte, said there was nothing inappropriate about keeping the flag lowered Tuesday. Agency policy requires each post office to fly the flag only during business hours and not on holidays, including Veterans Day, she said.

“It’s not a regular complaint,” Rice said. “The post office loves veterans.”

Griffin was so peeved about the slight that she marched into the Haymount Post Office Wednesday to give the manager an earful.

"(They said) there wasn't anybody there to hang it. Everybody was off. I said, 'Well, y'all need to get on the ball. Get somebody in here. Assign somebody,'" she said.

Rice said it would be impossible for all 38,000 post office locations nationwide to raise their flags on federal holidays.

Residents said flags were flying Tuesday at other post offices in Fayetteville, including the the main office downtown.

"I think it wouldn't have been that difficult for the Postal Service to make sure that it was flying," Fayetteville resident James Lewis said.

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