PORT TOWNSEND — Don Ely lost more than a U.S. flag when he found his Old Glory stolen early Friday morning.

It was the last tangible connection with his best friend.

That friend, who Ely asked remain anonymous out of respect, gave him the flag in 1968 before shipping off to Bien Hoa, South Vietnam.

About a month later, Ely lost his good buddy and military superior in the bloody Tet offensive, a turning point of the Vietnam War.

“My flag was the last physical object I had left of him to hold or observe, and I flew it night and day in memory,” said Ely, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant and reservist, in a letter to Peninsula Daily News.

The flag was stolen some time between, 1 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. Friday from Ely’s Sheridan Street front porch, and Ely filed a report with Port Townsend police.

Former law-enforcer

“I have heard of a lot of unusual things but the theft of a flag kind of scratches the bases of humanity and patriotism,” said Ely, who also served 20 years with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix.

The retired forensic artist moved from Arizona to Port Townsend in 2004 with his wife, Jeannie, to enjoy the North Olympic Peninsula’s much cooler climate.

Ely has flown the flag at several Air Force bases over the years and he said he was always careful to protect it from the elements.

Ely had been continuously flying his flag for seven months, lighting it at night, for health reasons. He said he suffers from emphysema.

When he stepped outside to walk his dog early Friday, Ely found the flagpole lying in his front yard, the flag missing.

That left him with only his memories of a friend he highly respected.

“He was a man that I looked up to and thought well of,” Ely of the friend departed now nearly 40 years.

“He was giving, supportive and he understood your problems.

“He was the kind of person that you feel close to without continuous day-to-day contact.”

The Elys said they would be happy if the flag was returned, no questions asked.

The memory is the issue, they said.

“It’s not the cost of the flag,” Jeannie Ely said.

“We’ve replaced the flag.”