![USS Oriskany on the day of her return from a deployment in 1976 at Naval Air Station Alameda. [ U.S. NAVY NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AVIATION ]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-8afa001d-4854-333c-e053-0100007fb63d-05d046fc.jpeg)
I was somewhat dismayed to read that the flag on the Oriskany had been removed. By whose authority? Can one just go and remove items from the ship?
Although the display underwater may be questionable, it did “wave" over a ship and its crew that had been through hell.
During the Vietnam War the air wing suffered the most losses of any air wing and then there was the fire. As a reference, so you know where I am coming from, I was there, in an air wing, on a sister ship during that same time frame.
At least those that removed it preserved it, but I certainly hope they replaced it with another one so all those that paid the price continue to have the American flag “waving” over them.
Ray Slingerland, Milton
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Flag on the Oriskany removed?