SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – A Marine was nearly reduced to tears when he discovered the American flag he donated to a school lacking one had been burned by vandals.

First Sergeant Reginald Daniels donated a flag to Oregon’s Brattain Early Learning Center when he discovered its flag pole was bare.

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A few days later, the school called, asking him how much it cost.

“They needed a price tag on the flag,” Daniels tells KVAL, “and I was like, ‘Why do they need that?’ And they said that the flag was burned.”

He went to the school and visited the teachers.

The Marine says someone burned the flag and left it flying at half-staff.

“Some of the teachers kind of teared up a little bit and then they took me in to the back room and showed me the flag that was burned,” Daniels says.

“I was lost for words,” he said, choking up, “to see that someone had pulled the flag down off the pole and burned it.”

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Undeterred, Daniels gave the school a new flag.

“The flag represents something a lot bigger than all the military services,” he told the news station.

“We put the uniform on to protect it, so that you and I and the little kids in the school can have something better. “It’s bigger than you taking the time to burn the flag in our own country.”

Daniels served a total of three tours in Afghanistan in Iraq and has two children.

And he’s proud of America.

“I love this country and what it stands for. I know everybody has their views, but I think everybody can have something that they can look proudly at, and that’s – I take pride in the flag,” he says.

“Someone out there thinks that this is OK. And this is the exact reason why I wear this uniform, so that – to show them that it’s not.”