Scouts restore flagpole veteran lost to vandals

U.S. Army veteran Leland Riggs, 97, center, recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a ceremony with neighbors, local Boy Scout Troop 342, and members of the local American Legion before raising an American flag on a new flag pole Wednesday. The Scout troop helped replace American flag and flagpole after they were destroyed by vandals in November.

032614 FLAG 01 — U.S. Army veteran Leland Riggs, 97, center, recites the Pledge of Allegiance during a ceremony with neighbors, local Boy Scout Troop 342, and members of the local American Legion before raising an American flag on a new flag pole Wednesday. The Scout troop helped replace American flag and flagpole after they were destroyed by vandals in November.

One Saturday morning last November, Leland Riggs, 97, a veteran of the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal, was surprised and saddened to find his American flag and its 20-foot pole missing from his front yard. A landmark to neighbors, Riggs' lighted flag is flying again through the efforts of Boy Scouts of Troop 342. The previous flagpole's destruction was part of a torrent of overnight vandalism in the area around Gentilly Road.

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