Flagging down support

It was a scene that made people stop and stare.

Some parked their cars and snapped a quick picture. Others, like one man on a motorcycle, pulled up to the curb alone in a quiet, personal moment and just stared for a couple of minutes before leaving.

No one who passed by 15th Street on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach on Wednesday missed the 80-foot American flag flapping in the wind above the American Legion Yacht Club Post No. 291.

“It’s awesome!” said Robin Thoraldson of Orange, who passed the flag as she returned kayaking equipment. “It makes you proud to be an American.”

The feelings that the flag evoked from countless people in Newport Beach on Wednesday came thanks to one wheelchair-bound man, who has been taking it with him across America in his quest to raise awareness about homeless veterans.

David Whittaker is a Marine who was injured during a training exercise in 1973 and discharged for medical reasons.

Coming out of the military, he said he expected government help like he’d been promised, but found none.

“We were all promised jobs would be available when we came back, but they weren’t,” he said.

Like so many other veterans, Whittaker ended up homeless. He said he eventually led a successful business, but he had to leave that after heart problems kept him from working. He has a pacemaker installed in his chest and a medical device, which automatically calls 911 if it fails attached to his chair.

“I refuse to quit. I just take it one day at a time,” Whittaker said inside the American Legion post Wednesday.

He was periodically interrupted by fellow veterans coming up and shaking his hand, thanking him for the flag. A local construction company offered to hang it from one of its cranes while he’s in town, he said.

“No one should be homeless. But on top of that, there’s no reason for a veteran to be homeless,” he said. “I might as well do something that can make a difference.”

Whittaker started in Key West, Fla., and plans on making it all the way to Washington state in his wheelchair without the assistance of planes, trains or automobiles. Several companies and clubs, including the American Legion, are sponsoring his journey and have helped arrange free motel rooms for him along the way.

He said a man in Indiana saw his love of the huge flag and bought him one. Whittaker is directing people to www.veterancottages.org, where people can make donations to fund homes, or “cottages,” for veterans modeled after the homes built for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

His application for becoming an official 501(c)(3) is being processed, he said.

In the meantime, Whittaker continues his journey up the coast with the 50-by-80-foot flag, big enough to cover a professional basketball court.

“How symbolic is it, in all its glory?” yacht club member Karl Gisler thought aloud. “That flag is a link to our culture, our past.”

To follow Whittaker’s travels, go to hhva.veteranscottages.org. For more information on his cause, visit veterancottages.org.