Delegate Norton Wants D.C. Flag Displayed With State Flags

D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton spent Monday trying to make certain that when the military displays the flags of all 50 states, they also display the flag of the District of Columbia.

It may seem like a small thing, but it’s a matter of hometown pride as well as national pride.

Tomi Rucker, a D.C. Fire and EMS investigator, and her husband, a D.C. police sergeant and military veteran, flew to see their son Jonathan graduate from the Great Lakes training facility after he joined the U.S. Navy last winter. Each recruit graduate was introduced with his or her state flag flying, but there was no D.C. flag for Jonathan.

“There was no flag for the District of Columbia,” Rucker said at the D.C. World War I Memorial Monday. “There was no recognition for my son's service.”

Rucker joined D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s effort to get that changed.

She's asking President Barack Obama to sign a memorandum and the Senate to agree to a House bill requiring the D.C. flag be included whenever the 50 state flags are used.

“Once and for all, we ask the president to wipe clean this disrespect,” Norton said.

Rucker emphasized to News4 that her son and her family love the U.S. Navy and all it’s done for Jonathan. 

“I was one of those parents who didn't want my son to go into the military,” she said. “Mainly because it's just the fear, not knowing. But I'm telling you, it's the best move he could have made.”

Her son loves the Navy so much he’s applying to the Naval Academy, and Norton said she’d help.

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