Veteran stands on bridge with American flag for 4 hours to honor Chattanooga victims
Every year, Ben Kinsey waves an American flag on a South Carolina bridge for 11 hours to honor victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
On Thursday, the veteran was seen standing alone on the bridge once again, but he was two months early.
This time he was honoring the four U.S. Marines killed by a gunman who attacked two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn.
South Carolina resident Noah Smith was driving home from work when he spotted Kinsey on the I-20 overpass and snapped a photo. Afterward, he shared the man's story on Facebook, and it quickly went viral.
"I wonder what he was doing turned around, parked my car got out and walked up to him and said, 'Sir this is really awesome of you but why are you doing this?'" the North August resident shared in the Facebook post. "He replies with 'I'm standing out here for the four Marines killed today in TN. You know they can survive combat and come home during a peaceful time and get killed.'"
The man told Smith he planned on staying on the bridge for four hours -- one for each Marine killed in the shootings.
"For the past three years, on 9/11, I've been standing on the bridge," Kinsey told CBS affiliate WRDW on Friday. "I try to do 11 hours to remember the folks who died on 9/11."
Dozens of Facebook users, including Whitney Degnan, say this isn't the first time they've seen Kinsey on the bridge.
Last year, Degnan was driving under the bridge on Sept. 11 when she saw him with a flag and pulled over to see if he was alright. He explained that he had spent time in the U.S. Marine Corp. and he would spend time on the bridge in remembrance of 9/11 "every year until he was dead."
That's why Degnan wasn't surprised to see Kinsey on the bridge again.
"I was surprised, but the same time I wasn't," Degnan told CBS News. "I saw the picture and automatically knew it was the same man. I was in awe because he is well over the age to be standing on a bridge in 100-degree weather, but he did and all for four people and the other thousands that he doesn't even know."
Hundreds of people on Facebook said they would like to stand with him next year.
"I will stand with him, any one else?" one user commented.
"Think everyone that agrees with and supports this man should go stand in that bridge? I'm down," another said.
Degnan said she plans on visiting him again this year.
"[With] all these horrible things are happening around us, he will be the reminder that our country will forever stand tall," she said.