Manager took down flags that were placed in front of his bank property to honor a fallen US Marine-Truth!

Manager took down flags that were placed in front of his bank property to honor a fallen US Marine-Truth!

Summary of the eRumor:
A forwarded email that said a South Carolina Bank of America manager took down the American flags that were placed in front of the bank property. This was part of a long line of flags along the procession that were placed to honor the memory of a US Marine that was killed in action. The manager said that the flags were taken down because of a bank's company policy.

The Truth:
This is true and was popularized on the internet by Fox News.

The Bank of America in Gaffney, South Carolina, was located along the procession route for US Marine Lance Corporal Christopher Fowlkes who died as a result of injuries from a roadside bombing while serving in Afghanistan.

Brenda Earls of Gaffney was a long time neighbor of the fallen serviceman and decided to honor his memory by placing American flags along the route where his casket would follow.

According to reports the bank manager removed the flags that were placed in front of the bank because of policies prohibiting the bank from flying flags. Earls added that she was told by the bank manager that such a display of flags could be offensive to some customers.

Because of this, both Earls and Cherokee County Council closed their accounts.

An official statement was released by Bank of America to the local Fox affiliate calling the issue a “misunderstanding” about the policy:

“We want to ensure the community knows how deeply proud we are of the men and women who have sacrificed so much in service to our country. The bank does fly the American flag at our locations throughout the country, and flags were displayed in front of our banking center in Gaffney the evening prior to our dedicated Marine returning home.”

Bank of America branches throughout the county make it a practice to have flag poles on their properties that properly display the US and state flags.

updated 10/01/09

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

On Wednesday 9/16/09 A 20 year old Marine hero's body whom was killed by an IED in Afghanistan, was returned via motorcade from Greenville Spartanburg airport to his small home town of Gaffney S.C. Tons of people lined the route up I85, filled the overpasses and watch with reverence as the procession passed. American flags and Marine Corps flags were everywhere.

Once the motorcade turned from the interstate onto city roads, local patriots had placed American flags along side the city route EXCEPT in front of the branch of Bank of America where the manager pulled the flags from the ground (Twice!). When politely questions the local people were told it was company policy not to have American flags on bank property, and there were no flags displayed anywhere in the branch.

Needless to say, Gaffney residents are removing their money from this bank as fast as they can. I personally will never do business with this bank again in any fashion. I urge you to forward this factual note to everyone you know, remove your money and tell this to everybody you see. Lets see how they like THIS! NO American should get away with this sort of thing. Of course the big wheels at BOA are spinning this as fast as they can, but it's far too late for me.