For the second time in a year, someone has stolen one of the ROTC flags from inside the Armory.

According to Department of Public Safety reports, on Saturday at about 6:20 p.m., Jake Wedsley, of 3703 Helser Hall, noticed several wooden screws on the floor of the east wing hallway of the Armory.

He apparently did not notice that anything was missing at that time. However, on Sunday he noticed a plaque had been taken from one of the hallways of the Armory.

After checking other areas in the building, he discovered the Marine flag was missing and the Navy flag was torn.

The Navy flag was not removed from its position.

Capt. John D. Maxey, chairman of the Department of Naval Science, said the theft isn’t entirely unusual..

“The flags were stolen a couple of times before. The last time was several months ago,” he said.

The last group of stolen flags was not returned.

Officials do not expect the flags to be returned.

Maxey said even though the Army ROTC and Air Force ROTC flags were apparently spared, this is not considered to be an attack by another branch of the military service.

“That is not something that we participate in,” he said. “We just don’t do that to each other.”

The incident is being called an act of vandalism

Neither DPS nor the Department of Naval Science had any suspects as of press time.

“We don’t know who it is that is doing it, but we do wish that they would stop it,” Maxey said.