CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Old Glory ... the Star-spangled Banner ... the flag of the United States is the symbol of our nation, the Constitution we in uniform swear to support and defend, and freedom around the world are all things worth celebrating. Thursday, we celebrate Flag Day and Sunday through June 16 is National Flag Week. This is a perfect time to reflect on the history and meaning of our flag.
The flag of the United States was born June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act: "Resolved, that the flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field representing a new Constellation." Each star and stripe represented one of 13 original Colonies. This 13-star flag was the national flag for 18 years, but our first commander in chief, George Washington, was the only president to serve under this flag.
The Flag Act of Jan. 13, 1794, authorized 15 stripes and 15 stars effective May 1, 1795. The addition of two stars and two stripes represented the addition of Vermont and Kentucky to the Union. This is the only official version of the flag to have more than 13 stripes and was our national flag for 23 years. It was this flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Sept. 13, 1814, and gave Francis Scott Key the inspiration to write The Star-Spangled Banner. The importance of the flag as a symbol of our country and freedom is underscored by the fact that our national anthem is a song about our flag:
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Four years later, President James Monroe signed The Flag Act of April 4, 1818, which returned the flag to 13 stripes representing the original Colonies but provided for one star for each state (20 at the time), to be added to the flag July 4 following the admission of each new state to the Union. Under this Act, the flag of the United States grew from 20 to 46 stars over the course of the next 94 years.
On June 24, 1912, in anticipation of the flag growing to 48 stars on July 4th, representing the addition of New Mexico and Arizona to the Union, President William Taft issued an Executive Order which established proportions of the flag and provided for arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of eight each, a single point of each star to be upward. This was the first time the order of the stars and the proportions of the flag were prescribed. This 48-star flag was our national flag for 47 years, which was longer than any other version (the current 50-star flag will match this longevity on the Fourth of July this year).
President Dwight Eisenhower issued two Executive Orders concerning the flag. The first on Jan. 3, 1959, provided for the addition of the 49th star representing Alaska's admission to the Union and prescribed an arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each, staggered horizontally and vertically. The 49-star flag was official for only one year since Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state on Aug. 21, 1959. Thus, President Eisenhower's second Executive Order concerning the flag provided for the addition of the 50th star and arrangement of the stars in nine rows of stars staggered horizontally and eleven rows of stars staggered vertically.
As with our national anthem, the importance of our flag as a symbol of our country and freedom is highlighted in our national pledge of allegiance:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Just as the sight of the Star-spangled Banner instilled hope for Francis Scott Key during the War of 1812, so did the image of six Marines raising the flag on the top of Mount Suribachi at Iwo Jima in 1945, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin planting the flag on the moon in 1969 and three firefighters raising Old Glory at Ground Zero on Sept. 11, 2001.
This Flag Day and National Flag Week, I hope you will fly Old Glory at your home and reflect with gratitude on all those, past and present, who have guarded the freedom it symbolizes.