We Lost a Buddy: RIP Jim Robertson aka Flage Guy

[max0073]

Sorry to hear this news.

I really enjoyed and still enjoy his contributions to the forum

Max

[General Apathy]

6 hours ago, kammo-man said:

Of course share it with them.

owen 

.

Thank you Owen, and thank you PQD please share it with his family, hopefully it will show the regard that was felt for Jim on the forum.

 

lewis

 

.

[MCDUFF]

I am truly saddened to hear of this news. He was an inspiration in the USMC collecting world. He will be dearly missed by all here.

My condolences to his family.

Graham

[ArchangelDM]

RIP Jim

you will be missed 

 

- Dean 

[patches]

A couple of vintage cars courtesy of Flage Guy, Post #79 and 93.

 

 

 

[dmar836]

Was just reading some of his posts. So sorry to hear this.

Dave

[1canpara]

A terrible loss to our collecting community 😔 RIP Jim. 

[patches]

This is for you Flage Guy

 

 

 

[PQD]

Today is Jim Robertson's unofficial 69th birthday, as he was born on Feb. 29th, but as with most born on Leap Year, he celebrated on the 28th.   The family of Jim Robertson created an obituary memorial page where anyone can leave messages, which you can access here:

 

https://rosefamilyfuneralhome.com/tribute/details/1487/James-Robertson/obituary.html#content-start

 

I took the liberty of updating Jim's epitaph with his correct birth year and have posted it here now.  

 

It is an understatement to say I remain numb and hollow since Jim passed, punctuated by the loss of yet another friend and a serious medical crisis of another.  It's all a huge reminder of mortality and age, and to that end I ask each member to every day think about this:  What would you do, what would you change, if you knew you had but a month, a week, a day more to live?

 

For our "Flage Guy," I think he'd appreciate these abridged sentiments expressed in Ernie Pyle's classic, "The Death of Captain Waskow":

 

Then a soldier came into the cowshed and said there were some more bodies outside. We went out into the road. Four mules stood there, in the moonlight, in the road where the trail came down off the mountain. The soldiers who led them stood there waiting. "This one is Captain Waskow," one of them said quietly.

 

Two men unlashed his body from the mule and lifted it off and laid it in the shadow beside the low stone wall. Other men took the other bodies off. Finally there were five lying end to end in a long row, alongside the road. You don't cover up dead men in the combat zone. They just lie there in the shadows until somebody else comes after them.

 

The unburdened mules moved off to their olive orchard. The men in the road seemed reluctant to leave. They stood around, and gradually one by one I could sense them moving close to Capt. Waskow's body. Not so much to look, I think, as to say something in finality to him, and to themselves. I stood close by and I could hear.

 

One soldier came and looked down, and he said out loud, "God damn it." That's all he said, and then he walked away. Another one came. He said, "God damn it to hell anyway." He looked down for a few last moments, and then he turned and left.

 

Another man came; I think he was an officer. It was hard to tell officers from men in the half light, for all were bearded and grimy dirty. The man looked down into the dead captain's face, and then he spoke directly to him, as though he were alive. He said: "I'm sorry, old man."

 

Then a soldier came and stood beside the officer, and bent over, and he too spoke to his dead captain, not in a whisper but awfully tenderly, and he said:

 

"I sure am sorry, sir."

 

Then the first man squatted down, and he reached down and took the dead hand, and he sat there for a full five minutes, holding the dead hand in his own and looking intently into the dead face, and he never uttered a sound all the time he sat there.

 

And finally he put the hand down, and then reached up and gently straightened the points of the captain's shirt collar, and then he sort of rearranged the tattered edges of his uniform around the wound. And then he got up and walked away down the road in the moonlight, all alone.

[collector]

I only found about Jim's passing recently. I've been on this forum a long time now, and Jim was always the man I enjoyed messaging with the most. Once Graig Pickrall told me that Jim knows as much as anybody about the Marine gear I am most interested in, and that's as good a compliment as it gets.

Really the thing about him was his kindness, and it radiated through the messages he sent. Hard to describe. I guess it was always his friendliness. 

[USARV72]

Devastated to just learn of Jim’s passing. Known him since early 80’s from dealings from The Shotgun News adds. We would phone each other several times a year. Met him in Texas and 3 of us went a show in Ft Worth. He bought an original M-1 helmet liner cardboard box and we all laughed when he got on plane back home, he carried it in his lap! We often talked about work as well as collecting militaria. When he moved back to Ca. he was really busy with work and we only spoke about once a year. Was thinking of calling him to check in when saw he had passed. RIP Jim and condolences to all that called him friend.

[268th C.A.]

Yeah I had no clue until USARV72 told me last night....News travels slow here I guess. Met him in Texas when all of us went to a show there. He was a nice guy for sure. RIP Jim. Fond memories...

[doyler]

Looks like Jims "Flage collection will be up for auction.

 

[PQD]

Thanks for the tip, Doyler.  It is quite the collection, and I was wondering what was going to happen with it.  Do you know what auction will handle this and when?

[doyler]

8 minutes ago, PQD said:

Thanks for the tip, Doyler.  It is quite the collection, and I was wondering what was going to happen with it.  Do you know what auction will handle this and when?

 

 

Grenadier Auction some time February 2022

[PQD]

Thank you!
 

[olivedrab1970]

I was going through some old emails that I had with Jim Robertson AKA FLAGE GUY and wanted to share this picture he had sent me of himself back in the early days when his love of all things GI had begun, ENJOY!

[Blacksmith]

Hard to believe it's been more than a year, wow.

 

Jim looks pretty snazzy in those ODs - boots could use some Kiwi though...  🤠

 

I certainly didn't know him as well as some of you all did, but I do miss seeing him on the forum.

 

 

[General Apathy]

On 7/11/2021 at 5:26 AM, collector said:

I only found about Jim's passing recently. I've been on this forum a long time now, and Jim was always the man I enjoyed messaging with the most. Once Graig Pickrall told me that Jim knows as much as anybody about the Marine gear I am most interested in, and that's as good a compliment as it gets.

Really the thing about him was his kindness, and it radiated through the messages he sent. Hard to describe. I guess it was always his friendliness. 

.

What greater compliment than one noteworthy collector Craig Pickrall complementing an equally noteworthy collector,  miss both of them on the forum and personally through our emails . . . . . . 

 

regard both lewis.

 

..

[USARV72]

Jim was a good friend and a very good man, knew him since the early 80’s thru the Shotgun News. He will be missed.