The large American flag is back on a residential fence along Dundee Road at Bach Street in Northbrook thanks to veterans of George W. Benjamin American Legion Post 791 of Northbrook.

Post members installed an American flag on May 25 over Memorial Day weekend after the flag, a regular presence on the fence since the evening of Sept. 11, 2001, went missing on May 2.

The owners of the flag, Beth Koeppen and Larry Rosenthal, reported the flag as stolen to Northbrook police for documentation reasons.

A shocked Koeppen then said, “It’s the flag of our country … all people’s flag.

“It’s about America.”

When post members learned the flag went missing, they immediately offered to replace it.

On a sunny Saturday, veterans installed a brand new flag as shadows became long soon before sunset.

Several motorists honked with approval as the small group gathered on a Dundee Road sidewalk for the flag installation. Friends and family attended with support, helping hands, and thumbs up.

“I’m just so pleased that we can do this for our neighbors, that’s what we do,” said Tom Kittler of Northbrook, post commander and a retired brigadier general who served in the U.S. Air Force for 32 years, both active and reserve, and was in the reserves on 9/11/2001.

Kittler, also a retired American Airlines pilot, is of the Glenbrook North High School Class of 1979.

Koeppen and Rosenthal planned to replace the stolen American flag and were stunned to learn of the post’s offer.

“It seemed like the right thing to do and I certainly hope it remains in place,” Kittler said. “Especially around Memorial Day, that’s an important time for our country and for us to remember those that have fallen.”

Talking on their driveway about 5 p.m., where the group gathered shortly before installation, were 801 Bach Street residents Koeppen, Rosenthal, and Koeppen’s mother Eleanor Nalven.

“I’m still kind of upset that somebody took this and I wish I knew why,” Rosenthal said of the missing flag. “I have a feeling I know why but I hope maybe it was not what I think. With what’s going on in this world, it seems like it’s something else.”

The Northbrook Veterans Center at 1354 Shermer Road is the storefront home of Post 791, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10236, the American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of the American Legion, and the American Legion Riders.

To Post 791 members, “I can’t even believe they’re doing this,” Rosenthal added. “For them to feel and realize that this is an issue they need to address is wonderful. It’s so beautiful.

“I think we need as a country to get back together and stick together and be harmonious,” Rosenthal said. “We’re America. Let’s not be divided anymore, let’s be together.”

With the Memorial Day weekend timing, “You have to remember the dead that sacrificed their lives for our country and to keep us free and to be able to speak what we want,” Koeppen said.

Koeppen’s mother Eleanor said, “I’m proud, I love the flag, proud to be an American.”

For years, motorists have noticed the American flag as a patriotic gesture installed by the Koeppen family on Dundee Road wood fencing at Bach Street.

Koeppen and her then spouse, the late John Koeppen, took their American flag off a pole by the home’s front door on 9/11/2001, placing the flag on the exterior fence side for all people.

Beth Koeppen and Rosenthal continued the tradition, respectfully replacing flags as fabric faded or worn. The couple added American flag lighting next to the material version.

To fill the void, Koeppen placed small American flags at the base of the fence where a large unfaded wood spot indicated where the missing flag was. On May 25, she removed them when the new flag was in place, noticing cicadas perched on the smaller flags as unexpected visitors to the community moment.

Rob Holt of Northbrook, twice past commander of the Northbrook post, used a staple gun to apply maybe 40 extra deep staples on the wood. The American manufactured flag is, “polyester, which is really the most durable flag to have,” Holt said proudly.

“It’s absolutely stunning and beautiful, it’s so honest and true and pure, I love it.

“It’s America, it’s Memorial Day,” Holt said, adding many, “died for that to give us the opportunity to put that flag up and to live free. That’s what America is.

“When I heard it was that flag (Dundee Road flag), and I’ve driven past that flag for 1,000 times, and one day it wasn’t there, and I wondered why, and when I heard about why, I said, ‘Absolutely, we got to hop all over this one.’

“It’s what the post does,” added Holt, who served in the United States Navy from 1971 to 1976. “It’s something we had to do.

“We take care of each other, we take care of veterans and we hope to take care of the town.”

As with many Americans, Koeppen, Rosenthal, and Kittler recall where they were on the morning of 9/11/2001. Koeppen was in Northbrook when her mother called to tell her to turn on the television, Rosenthal was on the East Coast and Kittler was in the Glenview vicinity.

On 9/11/2001, Holt was in Humboldt Park when he and a colleague saw on television, “the other plane hitting the other building (Twin Towers).”

“This is America,” Holt said. “Stuff like that doesn’t happen in America.”

Holt is inspired by the Dundee Road flag and the neighbors behind it since 9/11/2001.

“I wish everybody had that honor and dignity,” Holt said.

“If we all had that honor and dignity,” Holt said, “…we wouldn’t have the problems that we have. We would honor something noble and good and honest and we would act that way.”

Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.