About the time I was sitting down in the front patio area of retired city clerk for the City of Fillmore Shirley Spitler's house to talk with her about her display of the American Flag and a Support Our Troops banner, a news article, written by Robert Burns of the Associated Press, was arriving at my, and many of your homes. As Shirley and I sat on her white wicker patio furniture and I admired her fountain with a collection of ceramic turtles playfully perched at the fountain’s edge that article sat waiting for me to read in disbelief . The headlines, “One per day dying in Afghanistan” was sobering enough, but the article content was about more than that . It named names of fallen soldiers and it placed Americans in an awful light of complacency. The article said that the, “…war impact fades for some, but not for families.”

That is right, for most Americans the War in Afghanistan is no longer thought about . But for those of us living in Fillmore and Piru, fathers, mothers, and other family members who have loved ones in that war right now, we think of the war every day . We wish for our loved ones safety and a return home to a better life . I know as I am talking with Shirley that she is not one of those Americans who has forgotten the sacrifices of our currently serving military as well as those who have served and have earned the honor to be called a Veteran. Shirley honors our currently serving members and Veterans every day with her display of the American Flag and Support our Troops banner .

If you drive by 850 Oliver St. you will see two flags flying over the garage. One is the American Flag and the other a Support Our Troops banner. Both are on display 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is a practice started by Shirley's late husband Robert “Bud” Spitler many years ago. As Shirley looked fondly at the Flag and Banner she told me it was about time to buy new ones because they have begun to fade.

Shirley told me her first husband and the father of her three children, Marion Woods, served in the Navy stationed in the Philippines during the Korean War. He was killed in a car accident in 1966 at the age of 31. Two years later she married her second husband, Fillmore Native, Robert “Bud” Spitler, who had been an Army Air Corps P-38 pilot in Italy during WWII. Bud Spitler was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as a Lieutenant in 1944 while serving with the United States Army Air Corps (now the United States Air Force) when leading his squadron of P38s over Austria while escorting heavy bombers, rescuing his comrades in a stricken and crippled P38, driving off vicious attacks of the enemy and then directing an entire formation to safety. Shirley told me Bud had many interesting stories of the time he served including flying home on one engine after an operation and flying so low over Japanese fishermen that their small fishing boats would capsize. Since Bud passed away five years ago Shirley has continued with the display of the American Flag and Support our Troops banner.

It is for all American Veterans and closer to home Veterans like United States Korean War Veteran Marion Woods and United States Army Air Corps WWII Veteran Robert “Bud” Spitler that Shirley Spitler continues the tradition of flying both the American Flag and the Support Our Troops banner. Shirley Spitler is not one of those Americans described in the article as, “Americans in an awful light of complacency .” Thank you Shirley for your patriotism and honoring those men and women who have and are serving the United States of America. They are truly our American Heroes!