NYC veteran upset over torching of his US flag

NEW YORK — An 85-year-old veteran in New York City who says he still has traumatic dreams about World War II is extremely upset over the torching of his American flag.

Harold Bernstein says his neighbors on Staten Island first noticed the recent vandalism, which apparently occurred in the middle of the night.

Bernstein tells the Staten Island Advance (http://bit.ly/nZng8T ) that other flags on his block were untouched. He wonders: "Why did they pick on me?"

He said if he'd encountered the culprit, he would have "strung them up there along with the flag."

He vows to keep displaying it, even though it's scorched.

Says the former Marine: "I fought for that flag."