A few years ago, a group of Veterans in my home town took it upon themselves to clean up and repair the Vietnam/Korean War Veterans memorial that had neglected and was in pretty sad shape.
They did this with private money and without the consent of the town gov't. They just showed up on a Saturday and went to work. Had everything wrapped up in a few weekends.
During the re-dedication ceremony, they arranged for a military fly-over with a local resident piloting the aircraft.
The police department was flooded with phone calls. One of the officers, who was a Veteran himself, was at the station at the time the calls started coming in. One citizen complained to the officer about the noise from the fly-over, the call went something like this - (keep in mind, one of the neighboring towns has a military air base)
caller - "I want to complain about the noise caused by that low flying plane through the center of town"
officer - "Yes ma'am, did you see the plane?"
caller - "Of course I saw it, I was in my yard and that plane couldn't have been more than a few hundred feet over my head"
officer - "Thank you. Can you tell me, was it one of ours?"
caller - "What do you mean, one of ours?"
officer - "Was it a US airplane?"
caller - "I believe it was"
officer - "Well then I will relay your concern and your thanks to the pilot, the Veterans assembled in the town square and the families of those whose names are on the plaque for allowing them to keep you safe" (click)
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