September 3, 2020

Why a Chattanooga Vet Walks With a Flag

His immigrant father taught him love of country, as did serving in the U.S. Army.

One U.S. Army Special Forces veteran in Chattanooga has taken to walking for a couple of hours each day. So what, you say? Well, he walks while caring an American flag.

Six days a week, beginning about 6:45 a.m., Shawn Tobin walks for eight to 10 miles through town carrying Old Glory. “I’m starting to see the same families,” Tobin said. “They will scream, honk their horn.” He added, “The first couple of weeks I would count the number of honks during the week day, 350 to 400.”

Why does he do it? His father was born in Ireland and immigrated to Chicago at age 16 to work in the iron mills. He learned hard work and love of America from his dad. Back in the 1980s, Shawn joined the Army. “My unit was down in Honduras down in Central America. We trained Contras. Got to go to Korea with Team Spirit. Got to see a little bit of the world,” Tobin said. “I think that afforded me the opportunity once I became an educator to help out kids to realize that there’s more to the world than just the United States of America, and how lucky we really are to live in this country.”

It’s better to walk with a flag, he says, than to be on TV burning one.

“As a veteran I realize this isn’t just a symbol,” he said. “This really is hope and I think about the veterans on my mom’s side of the family, [as well as] the people who have suffered or who have died for the country.”

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.