The nymber of flags that were not at half-staff Wednesday in recognition of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day made Traci Brooks sick to her stomach.

"I feel embarrassed and disgusted because we need to support our military families," she said. "If I was a veteran who served in Pearl Harbor, I would feel very, very hurt after everything I had done for my country."

As Brooks was driving in the morning, she noticed several businesses, including banks, that had not followed proper protocol and had left their flags at the tops of their poles.

"I even went by a post office, in North Idaho, and theirs wasn't lowered, so I was like, 'Holy crud," she said. "I went in and talked to them and said, 'Hey, lower your flag.'"

Brooks is the state representative for the national Honor and Remember campaign, which presents special flags to families of military personnel who died while serving. She works closely with families whose loved ones have paid the ultimate sacrifice and is stalwart in her efforts to support the military community.

"We need to show and stand for what we are," she said. "It's really sad that we can't get back to the basics."

Brooks said as time goes by, people should be setting examples for younger generations and making sure proper flag protocol is being followed in schools and businesses throughout the community.

"It's mainly businesses that should recognize that more because I think they would show unity with them all together," she said. "We need to educate people. Everybody gets busy in their own day-to-day lives. They need to realize the importance of their nation and we need to work together."

Retired Air Force master sergeant and Vietnam veteran Dusty Rhoads, who spent 26 years in the service, used to spend time in local classrooms teaching students how to respect the flag. He said he gets disgruntled about the lack of respect when certain anniversaries, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor, come around.

"There were 2,000-some sailors and Marines that died and are still interred there. I got a long memory," said Rhoads, of Coeur d'Alene. "We've done a piss-poor job of teaching people about the flag. It's disappointing, to say the least."

Veteran Richard Dandelski of Dalton Gardens served in the Navy and retired in 1987. He said he feels the flag isn't getting enough respect across the country. He also noticed which locations properly lowered their flags on the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

"When I was driving around town today, some banks had their flags down, some didn't," he said. "For being Pearl Harbor Day and everything those guys went through, it's almost sickening that the people don't know flag etiquette. They get on a bandwagon when an officer is killed and they decide to put the flag down, but they need to remember Pearl Harbor and the other wars where people are killed.

"They just don't have the information on flag etiquette. We need to grind it into their heads somehow."

That being said, Dandelski said his flag came down to half-staff on Pearl Harbor Day and will stay down until Sunday to recognize the memorial for the Tacoma officer who was killed in the line of duty.

Along with lowering flags on certain days and at particular times, Brooks said flag poles need to be illuminated from dusk until dawn. American flags should always be the top flags, with state, POW/MIA and other flags positioned below.

Dandelski said it's almost disgraceful how the flag is treated anymore, "especially when somebody flies their country's flag over ours on U.S. soil."

"This is our country. This is our ground," he said. "It's not right."