Tom Kittler of Northbrook, commander of George W. Benjamin American Legion Post 791 of Northbrook and a retired brigadier general, answers the call.
“When the phone rings and the nation calls, you salute smartly,” Kittler said.
So when fellow post members notified Kittler of an American flag gone missing from a Northbrook home, a flag among a series of American flags that have had a presence on a Dundee Road residential fence since Sept. 11, 2001, Northbrook veterans rallied.
Kittler said, “The first thought that came to mind from numerous individuals,” was, “‘Let’s replace it.’
“It’s the people’s flag.”
Beth Koeppen of Northbrook does not like to be considered the co-owner of the American flag lost or stolen on May 2 because the flag belongs to the people.
“It’s the flag of our country … all people’s flag,” Koeppen said. “It’s about America.”
The Northbrook Veterans Center at 1354 Shermer Road, the storefront home of Post 791, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10236, American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of the American Legion and the American Legion Riders, will provide a new American flag to Beth Koeppen and her partner Larry Rosenthal.
The couple’s residence at 801 Bach Street has a wood fence along their Dundee Road side yard. For years, motorists have noticed the American flag in a patriotic gesture first installed by the Koeppen family.
Beth Koeppen and her then spouse, the late John Koeppen, took their American flag off a pole by the home’s front door on the night of 9/11/2001, placing it on the exterior fence side for all people to see.
Koeppen and Rosenthal have continued the tradition, replacing flags respectfully when they became faded or worn. The couple added lighting in the shape of the American flag next to the larger fabric version.
To fill the void, Koeppen installed small American flags at the base of the fence where a large unfaded spot indicated where the fabric flag was.
“What does the Constitution start with? We the people,” Koeppen said. “I think we’ve lost touch with that in our society.”
Before sunset on Thursday, May 2, Rosenthal came home from the health club to a shocking sight.
Rosenthal recalled, “I’m like, ‘What happened to our flag? Somebody took our flag down,’ and I’m like, “Okay,’ so I went in and I said, ‘Beth, our flag is missing,’ and she goes, ‘No, no,’ and I said, ‘I’m telling you, it’s gone.’
“I’m like, ‘We just put this up a couple of weeks ago,’ a brand new one,” Rosenthal said. “How could this occur? It’s just awful.”
The couple filed a Northbrook police report for documentation purposes. It is believed there are no cameras in the vicinity.
Rosenthal said, “I have a friend of mine that drove by who said, ‘Larry, why are there little flags, where’s the big flag?’
“I said, ‘Somebody took it and stole it last night,’ (and) he said, ‘It is so wrong.’”
On May 3, the couple talked about the missing flag on the Dundee Road public sidewalk as the sun was setting.
Koeppen wore a t-shirt with an American flag, and Rosenthal wore blue, but both wished to not have their faces photographed because “It’s not about me, it’s about what the flag represents.
“It’s about America,” Koeppen added.
Rosenthal, an entrepreneur known locally as “Unique Larry” with his vibrant carpet cleaning vans, said silhouettes behind the scenes in this case say enough.
Shadows represent, “all people of all times who have given their lives for this country, for this beautiful, wonderful country,” Rosenthal said.
“Despite everything that’s going on, this is still the best country in the world,” Koeppen said.
Beth Koeppen was at the Bach Street residence on 9/11/2001 when her mother called to tell her to turn on the television.
“It was a terrible day,” said Koeppen, the parent of two grown children, Melissa and John, who were in high school then. “I was watching TV and I saw the second plane go into the building.”
On 9/11, Rosenthal was living in Virginia and saw, “smoke coming from the Pentagon.”
Rosenthal was working a job that Tuesday morning as a carpet cleaner.
“When I was cleaning the lady’s carpet, she had the TV on and I thought that she was watching “Die Hard” or something,” he recalled.
It was the news. Rosenthal recalled, “‘This is not a movie?”
The television screen showed them both a plane hitting a building.
Tom Kittler, who served in the U.S. Air Force for 32 years, both active and reserve, was in the reserves on 9/11. Kittler, now a retired American Airlines pilot, has, “a lot of close feelings, a lot of dear and sad memories from that day.”
On 9/11/2001, “My wife and I were riding our bicycles back from the grade school (Winkelman Elementary School in Glenview) that both our daughters attended,” Kittler said, “and we got a call from one of our Air Force friends,” who said, “‘You better bike on home and take a look at what was going on.’”
With Memorial Day, May 27, on the horizon, “That flag is a symbol of what we’re doing, what we want to do for our nation,” Kittler said.
“Especially for the veterans, for the active duty service members, guards, men and women, reservists, this is a symbol of our nation,” Kittler said.
“We raise the right hand and support and defend the Constitution, right?
“But what we, as the Northbrook Veterans Center … all will commit to do,” Kittler said, “is replace that flag. To have legs like that, to have a timeline like that, to be around for that long is quite amazing, it’s quite remarkable.”
The Northbrook Veterans Center is coordinating flag replacement logistics with the family.
“We want to replace the people’s flag,” Kittler said. “It would be our honor and privilege to do that.
“That’s what we do.”
