JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A design inside Jacksonville’s VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena sparked outrage among local veterans who felt it disrespected the American flag. The issue? A flag-inspired design on the arena steps that some believed gave the impression people were walking on the flag itself.

Retired Lt. Colonel Bob Adelhelm, U.S. Marines, was among those who spoke out.

“I served under that flag for 23 years,” Adelhelm said. “You wonder why younger generations have no respect for things like the flag—it’s because we’re doing things like this. We show them we have no respect. We say, ‘Go ahead and walk on it.’”

After the backlash, the City of Jacksonville’s Department of Military and Veterans Affairs pledged to alter the design. The plan originally included a $10,000 budget to make the changes.

The city did follow through, but not in the way many expected. Instead of a full redesign, they removed the canton — the blue rectangle with stars — leaving only the red and white stripes. 

“They simply took out the field of blue and left the stripes,” said Harrison Conyers, director of the city’s Military and Veterans Affairs Department. And the cost to taxpayers? Not $10,000. “It was nothing,” he says. 

Conyers says the original flag design came from a group, including some veterans. But he can understand when other veterans objected.

Conyers says the city is in the process of changing the lobby into a place to honor military service. He says the football and sports items will be moved to a sports museum at some point. 

Even with the removal of the blue field and white stars, Adelehelm still feels frustration. 

“Good initiative, poor judgment,” he said. “We should never have gotten to this point in the first place.”

Ironically, it was Adelhelm himself who suggested the solution of removing the canton. The city listened, the arena staff helped to make the change, and in the end, taxpayers didn’t foot the bill. The revised design was a compromise—one that kept a patriotic look while eliminating the flag’s most recognizable elements to prevent any appearance of disrespect. 

The red and white stripes look patriotic, he says, but it’s also not a replica of the American flag. “You see red and white on barber poles and on buntings,” he says

With the changes in place, the city considers the issue resolved. But for some veterans, the controversy serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting the integrity of the American flag—on display or underfoot.