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Van Barfoot was briefly barred by his local homeowners' association from erecting a flagpole outside his home back in 2009. The situation was quickly rectified, however, and Barfoot has since passed away; hence the appeal cited above entreating recipients to support his cause is now outdated. Van Thurman Barfoot was a retired United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor, the United States military's highest decoration, for his actions in Italy during World War II where, as described in his Medal of Honor citation, he single-handedly destroyed a set of German machine gun nests, killed eight enemy soldiers, took 17 prisoners and stared down a tank before destroying it and killing its crew — all in a single day. Exhausted by his herculean efforts, he still managed to move two of his wounded men 1,700 yards to safety. In December 2009, Van T. Barfoot (then 90 years old) became the focus of a minor controversy when he was barred by his local homeowners' association from flying the U.S. flag on a 21-foot flagpole outside his home because the flagpole violated the neighborhood's aesthetic guidelines: Mr. Barfoot contested the HOA's order and received support from local politicians, including Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Jim Webb, as well as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. He won his case when the association dropped its request on Dec. 8, 2009, effectively ending the controversy. In February 2010, the Virginia Senate approved a bill to bar homeowners associations from prohibiting display of the U.S. flag: Van T. Barfoot passed away at the age of 92 on March 2, 2012.
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