VIDEO: American Flag on the Ground Following Sen. McCain Rally

By Rebecca Wu

KSDK -- A production company is apologizing for how its workers treated the American Flag. It happened Monday after everybody left Senator John McCain's rally in St. Charles.

• Video: Watch Rebecca Wu's report

NewsChannel 5 photographer Larry Johnson could not believe what was happening when he saw the workers let the giant flag fall to the ground. While he's rolling his camera, you could hear him say, "I feel like going over there and saying, 'what the *&^% you're doing?'"

Johnson stopped rolling his camera and confronted the worker. The cofounder of the production company hired to set the stage apologized to our photographer. Trent Edgerton of Sound Central, a Wisconsin-based company, told NewsChannel 5 the workers were trying to bring down the flag as soon as possible because of the wind. He apologized again and said he would make sure it did not happen again.

We showed the video to Terry Souders, a Vietnam Veteran and ex-commander of VFW Post 3500 in Richmond Heights.

"This is pathetic," he said while watching a replay of the video.

Souders contained his reaction during the interview but said there's no excuse for what happened.

"This is our national symbol. So many men and women went to war under this flag and have died so we can fly this flag," he said.

In a prepared statement, Wendy Riemann, Missouri Spokeswoman for McCain's campaign said: "We find the action, done by an outside vendor separate from the campaign, very troubling and have followed up with the vendor to express our displeasure. We take flag protocol very seriously and we will continue working to ensure our flag is given the proper respect."

Often times, local fire departments use the giant flags to honor military men and women killed in service. Kirkwood's Fire Chief Thomas Openlander told NewsChannel 5 his department usually uses three people to cradle the flag as it cascades down. The flag is then properly folded back at the firehouse without having to fight the wind.

NewsChannel 5 wants to know how you feel about the way the flag was handled? Watch the video, and then leave us your comment below.