Flags stolen from Hot Spring County War Memorial in Malvern; family of fallen veteran reacts

MALVERN, Ark. – More than 120 soldiers’ names are on the Hot Spring County War Memorial, but each flag flying around them is gone.

Every time a name is read there, Courtney Schultz said her uncle, Michael J. Yarbrough, is remembered.

“It’s something that we look at and we smile,” Schultz said.

But for the past week, feelings have been different because the defenseless memorial to America’s many defenders was robbed of every flag around it: flags for America, Arkansas, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Michael J. Yarbrough’s branch, the Marines.

Yarbrough decided to enlist after 9/11. He served three tours, and Schultz said on his last, he volunteered in place of another Marine to support his wife and children on the way.

“He was at a checkpoint and a suicide bomber came through, and that’s how it happened,” Schultz said.

For Yarbrough and the other veterans, the Malvern Police Department is investigating the theft. County Judge Dennis Thornton said surveillance video is being reviewed to identify who is responsible.

Schultz asked for the veterans’ sake that the perpetrator and everyone else “Just respect them.”

“I don’t think some people realize when you enlist, when you decide this is what you want to do, you know what the outcome can be, and you do it for other people. My uncle loved you. He didn’t know you, but he loved you,” Schultz said.

Thornton said replacement flags should be delivered within days with an event to follow the following week with the ROTC and veterans in attendance for when the flags are hung back up with pride.

More information for the date and time will be shared as it becomes available.

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