• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • ABOUT US
  • MEDIA
  • PRIVACY
  • TERMS
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS
do you remember

DoYouRemember?

The Home of Nostalgia

  • Celebrity News
    • Family
    • Obituaries
    • Life Behind the Fame
    • ICONS
    • Celebrity Feuds
  • Entertainment
    • Cast
    • Showbiz Rewind
    • Music
    • Beauty & fashion
  • STORIES
  • Celebrity Buzz!?
  • Sitcoms
    • Bewitched
    • Little Rascals
    • The Partridge Family
    • I Dream of Jeannie
    • All in the Family
    • MASH
    • Happy Days
    • Cheers
  • Celebrity Collections
  • SHOP DYR
    • DYR Book

Stories

Veteran Receives American Flag 60 Years After Retirement From Army

by Jane Kenney

Published May 24, 2021

Veteran Receives American Flag 60 Years After Retirement From Army

92-year-old Jack Thornton, an Army veteran, finally received an American flag 60 years after he retired. Thornton retired from active duty following a decade of service in the U.S. Army, from 1946 to 1957, retiring as a Command Sergeant Major (CSM), the highest non-commissioned officer rank in the Army.

He often told Kevin Kelly, Laurel councilman-elect for Ward 2, that he regretted never getting a flag. Kelly, who is also a retired CSM, said he understood Thornton’s disappointment. “When you have 0.8% of people who enter the Army to make that … that was just something else besides jumping out of airplanes and being in the Army together that we both share,” he says.

Related:

  1. Veteran Climbs Flagpole To Fix American Flag At Navy SEAL Monument
  2. First Responders Recover Veteran’s American Flag Lost In Nashville Explosion

Jack Thornton gets an American flag flown in his honor after years of service in the Army

american flag
Wikimedia Commons

“Whenever I met him, one of the things we talked about was first we talked about jumping out of airplanes together, and he was like, ‘The only thing that I regret is I never got a flag when I retired from the Army,’” he continues.

RELATED: NYC Veterans Furious After Parade Gets Canceled, But Cannabis Parade Allowed To Continue

That’s when Kelly reached out to his brother, Congressman Trent Kelly, R-Miss. and requested a flag be flown over the U.S. Capitol in Thornton’s honor. It was then presented directly to Thornton for his service. He calls the flag “the highest honor” he has ever received in his life.

“I thank this country for putting up with me and God being in the path of righteousness. And to Laurel, my home and I love my home state,” Thornton says. In a Facebook post, Kelly calls Thornton “a great man” and says it was a honor to call him a “friend and Brother-in-Arms.”

Next up: Prince William Recalls Learning Of Princess Diana’s Death As A ‘Painful Memory’

Previous article: Prince William Recalls Learning Of Princess Diana’s Death As A ‘Painful Memory’
Next Post: Chicago Macy’s Hangs World’s Largest American Flag In Annual Tradition Of Patriotism

Primary Sidebar

© 2025 DoYouRemember? Inc.

  • about us
  • media
  • privacy
  • terms
  • DMCA
  • CONTACT US
  • AUTHORS