Greg Carpenter wants businesses to wave the colors proudly

Greg Carpenter, owner of Luke Enterprises, unfurls the West Virginia flag.

By Todd Meyers
CHARLESTON GAZETTE-MAIL
June 7, 1998

Ever count the number of American flags visible from Interstate 64 between Charleston and Huntington? Greg Carpenter did and a new business was born.

"Driving through the valley I noticed how many different businesses displayed the United States flag," Carpenter said. "They needed to buy these flags somewhere. Why not locally?"

The American flags visible from the highway, incidentally, numbered 150.

A senior lab technician at the Union Carbide Tech Center in South Charleston, Carpenter developed a healthy dose of pride for his country's flag during a stint in the U.S. Navy where he served as a hospital corpsman.

Carpenter started Luke Enterprises (named after his 3-year-old son) just two years ago. But already he has honed a keen eye for flags that are improperly displayed.

Carpenter takes a flag order. The company is headquartered in the master bedroom of his family's Cross Lanes home. About 60 percent of Luke Enterprises' business comes over the Internet.

"It really bugs me when I see some businesses let flags fly tattered and torn - flags that should have been taken down months ago and properly disposed of," Carpenter said. "It's more of a standard of respect rather than an enforcement of law. There are no flag police."

Sun, wind, and rain will fade and tear even the toughest weather-resistant flags. Carpenter retires the flags he flies around-the-clock on the illuminated 20-foot fiberglass pole in front of his Cross Lanes home about once every six months.

Regular flag replacement can be an expensive proposition. Terramite Corp.'s colossal 30-by-60-foot Stars and Stripes, visible from Interstate 64 just east of Cross Lanes, costs about $1,500 to replace. Even the standard 8-by-12-foot flags that grace poles outside most government buildings and larger factories run about $120.

The flags Luke Enterprises markets are more expensive than the ones most people purchase at discount stores and fly on the Fourth of July and a handful of other flag holidays each year. That's because flags purchased at Wal-Mart and Lowe's are often printed cloth, while commercial-quality flags feature individually embroidered stars and sewn stripes that can stand up to stiff breezes.

As part of Luke Enterprises' customer service, Carpenter will collect worn flags locally and transport them to a Veterans of Foreign Wars post where they are burned periodically in a solemn ceremony. The American Legion performs a similar flag-disposal ceremony several times a year.

"I will pick up the old flags free of charge. People don't want to throw them in the trash can," Carpenter said. "You don't bury or landfill the flag."

Luke Enterprises provided all the flags outside South Charleston Stamping & Manufacturing, including the corporate banners. No flag should fly higher, or be larger, than the U.S. flag.

Incorrect positioning of the U.S. flag when more than one flag is displayed is another common mistake. "There's more to it than simply running a flag up a pole," Carpenter said.

Luke Enterprises provided all the flags outside South Charleston Stamping & Manufacturing, including the corporate banners. No flag should fly higher, or be larger, than the U.S. flag.

Carpenter noticed a photograph than ran in The Charleston Gazette on April 21 where the American flag outside the new Toyota Motor Manufacturing engine plant in Buffalo was improperly positioned. The photo showed the American flag placed on the center flagpole in a trio of poles of the same height. Flanking the U.S. flag on the left was a West Virginia flag, with a Toyota corporate flag flying to its right.

"The U.S. flag on the center pole would have been fine if it was the tallest pole," Carpenter said.

Among flagpoles of equal height, however, the position of honor is always the pole to the far left as people face the property - a vantage known as the public view. This position is always to the flag's own right.

"The U.S. flag has a right and left side," Carpenter explained. "It is anatomically correct - almost like an organism. It is not just a piece of cloth."

The blue field stitched with 50 white stars - known as the Union - is always placed to the flag's own right.

Confused?

The folks at Toyota were. They weren't alone. The new Embassy Suites hotel in Charleston ran into similar trouble when it first opened. It's not hard to screw up when there's a hodgepodge of government and corporate flags involved.

South Charleston Stamping & Manufacturing, one of Luke Enterprises' clients, flies six flags from three poles at the main gate of its complex. The montage includes an American flag on the tallest center pole, with the West Virginia state flag flying immediately below. The pole to the left contains a South Charleston Stamping corporate banner on top with a Freightliner banner below. The pole to the right contains a General Motors banner on top, with a Mercedes banner below - demarcating two major clients.

"When I called the guy at Toyota, he laughed," Carpenter said. "He said, 'I was waiting for someone to call after that picture ran in the paper. Nobody here knows here for sure how to place the flag.'

"He wasn't sure, but he felt that they might have done it wrong," Carpenter said. "I sent him a complete information packet."

Carpenter's eagle eye may lead to more business for Luke Enterprises. Like its brethren plants, Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia will fly a flag unique to the factory.

"Toyota is going to design a flag," Carpenter said. "Each Toyota facility has its own colors, so to speak. Its own trademark design. We'll do a bid on that when we get a copy for the design."

Operating out of a nook in the master bedroom suite of his Cross Lanes home, Luke Enterprises employs no fabric cutters or sewing machine operators. Carpenter, however, has solid connections with Allstates Flag and Banner in St. Louis, a company that specializes in short runs and one-of-a-kind designs for corporate flags.

"They can make anything," Carpenter said.

The two companies are currently in cahoots to create a custom flag for Wells Home Furnishings at 101 Bowers Road. A custom flag can run about $100. "It's like printing a brochure," Carpenter said. "There is a setup fee and the price is lower with the more you order."

Dettra Flag of Oaks, Pa., is Luke Enterprises' chief supplier of U.S. and state flags. Carpenter prices his flags 25 percent below the suggested retail price.

"I can afford to," he said. "I have no overhead."

Carpenter's showroom consists of an Internet Web page at www.majestyflags.com. Luke Enterprises' advertising is basic brochures printed with a color computer printer.

"It's been a cash only, shoestring operation," Carpenter said. "I didn't want to borrow any money, I didn't want that burden."

Luke Enterprises sold more than 200 flags in 1997, and the home-based business continues to grow each year, Carpenter said.

"Sixty percent of my flag business comes over the Internet," Carpenter said. "The rest are strictly cold calls."

The city of South Charleston and Texas Steak House are clients of Luke Enterprises.

In addition to flags, Luke Enterprises also sells maintenance-free fiberglass flagpoles that can range in price from $398 for a basic 20-foot version to $6,140 for a deluxe 60-foot pole. Finials the brass balls or onion-shaped tops that cap the poles are available as well.