For the troubleshooters, a Facilities Operations and Management team charged with solving the College’s off-hours problems — floods, electrical issues, broken pipes — raising and lowering the flags on the Green is a more symbolic task. Less than a quarter of an hour after sunset on Wednesday, troubleshooters Stuart Bacon and Loren Cameron arrived to lower the flags.
“It’s something that we’ve done for a number of years,” said Bacon. “It’s an important thing, and I know it’s important to a lot of people, not just the American flag but the Dartmouth flag as well.”
Bacon flies a flag at home and says the symbol is important to him and others on the seven-person troubleshooters staff.
“I feel that [flying the flag] is a nice thing to do. I have not served my country, as far as in the service or anything, but a number of the troubleshooters have been in the service.”
Because emergency maintenance is the primary responsibility of the troubleshooters, tending to the flag — which, according to the U.S. Flag Code, should be flown from sunrise to sunset — is sometimes a second priority.
“You know, it’s nights that we are very busy and we don’t get to take the flag down when it should be taken down, and that can sometimes be a problem with some people,” Bacon said. “Because there are certain rules about the flag and how it’s handled, it should be lit if it stays out all night, that sort of thing. And we try our best to treat it as it should be, but as I said, sometimes we can’t, because of our jobs that we have to do.”
And even though the troubleshooters roll the flag instead of folding it, Cameron and Bacon say they keep flag etiquette in mind.
“It’s not simply a piece of cloth,” Bacon said. “It does represent our country, and we’re proud of that.”
Marie-Capucine Pineau-Valencienne contributed reporting.
