INDIANA STORE OWNER ENDS HIS OBAMA PROTEST BY TURNING THE FLAG RIGHT SIDE UP

A correct sentiment. He shouldn't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities for distress signals during the next 4 years.

A tire store owner has removed the American flag he flew upside down in protest of Barack Obama's election as president after complaints from his employees.

Greg Townsend said he had planned to keep the flag outside his business inverted until Obama left office but took it down Friday morning.

"My employees were all upset with me, and I can't replace my crew right now, I'm going on vacation," he said. "About six applicants came in and said they'd go to work for me, but it's pretty difficult to replace a crew when you're leaving on vacation."

Townsend said he is a Navy veteran who served in Vietnam in 1969-70, at the time John McCain was a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

"My feelings will never change," he said of Obama. "I've had all kinds of veterans call me and come in personally and thank me for flying it upside down. I'm amazed."

Townsend pointed to the U.S. flag code, which says flying the flag upside down is acceptable "as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property."

Tonya Miller, a worker at Townsend's Tire Service, wasn't bothered by the flag protest in the city of about 10,000 people some 20 miles southeast of Fort Wayne.

"I think it makes a statement, and I wish more people would have before Tuesday, because now I feel we'll probably have him for eight years," she said.