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Show NEWS Jcne 14, 1991 American Forces Information Service June 14 is Flag Day, a time to celebrate the birthday of the Stars and Stripes: June 14, 1777. On that day, Congress adopted the first official flag to symbolize the United States of America. The flag we honor and under which we serve, said President Woodrow Wilson in a 1917 Flag Day address, "is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation... It speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it." Because of the sacrifice of Americans some of whom lie buried in its folds the U.S. flag has come to symbolize freedom and the continued struggle for the cause of liberty, wherever that quest may lead. As an example of its continuity, the flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, was the same flag raised on Dec. 8 when war was declared on Japan. Three days later, it flew again when the United States declared war against Germany and Italy. President Franklin Roosevelt called it the "flag of liberation," and he carried it to the Casablanca Conference where he met British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to decide where next to attack after the fall of North Africa and on other historic occasions. The same flag was later raised above the United Nations Charter meeting at San Francisco in June 1945, and hoisted in July and August 1945 over the Big Three Conference at Potsdam, Germany. President Harry Truman had it flown over the White House on Aug. 14, 1945, when the Japanese accepted the U.S. terms of surrender, and from the mast of the USS Missouri during the formal Japanese surrender in Tokyo on Sept. 2, 1945. scene atop The moving battle for the Suribachi Mount during Iwo Jima in 1945 reminds even the most cynical to what length Americans will go in the struggle for freedom. Unfortunately, the famous photograph of that episode became a controversy when it was claimed the incident had been posed. But historian Robert Goralski explained what occurred. Mr. Goralski wrote that Marine combat photographer Louis R. Lowrey photographed the actual first flag raising at about 10:15 on the morning of Feb. 23, 1945. The flag was attached flag-raisin- g to an iron pipe and jammed into the climbed to the summit and arrived ground. Mr. Lowrey then returned to there just as a larger flag, brought up the beachhead to be treated for from an LST, was being raised. Mr. wounds received from a Japanese Goralski wrote, "First Lieutenant grenade thrown shortly after the pic- Harold G. Schrier, who had been ture was taken. There, Mr. Lowrey ran responsible for the initial flag raising, into Associated Press photographer decided to replace the smaller flag with Joe Rosenthal. Mr. Lowrey suggested the larger one. Rosenthal was 35 feet Mr. Rosenthal should get up to the top away from the flag when he took his because there were "some great shots famous photograph, of 18 he took at of the whole island from up there." the summit." The American flag has been carried Taking the tip, Mr. Rosenthal Battle of 'just cause' inspires Banner Key's Star-Spangl- ed 0 say can you see by the dawn 's early light What so proudly we haiVd at the twilight's last gleaming, Whose broad stripes & bright stars, through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there, banner 0 say does that wave yet O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave? star-spangle- d On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half-disclose- s? Now it catches the gleam of the morn- ing's first beam In full glory reflected now shines in the stream banner 0 long "lis the may it wave O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave! star-spangl-ed And where is that band who so vaunt-ingl- y swore, That the havoc of war & the battle's confusion A home & a Country should leave us no more? Their blood has wash 'd out their foul footstep's pollution. No refuge could save the hireling & slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, d banner in triAnd the wave doth umph O'er the land of the free & the home . of the brave. star-spangle- 7 Times f ?Fdllffil o o by F. Peter Wlgginton Htop O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand Between their lov'd home & the war's desolation! Blest with vict'ry & peace may the heav'n rescued land Praise the power that hath made & preserv'd us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto "In God is our trust," And the banner in trishall wave umph O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave. star-spangl- ed d The Banner was written by a lawyer, Francis Scott Key, on Sept. 14, 1814. The United States was at war with Great Britain. The British had attacked and burned Washington, D.C., and took Dr. William Beanes as a prisoner when they sailed for Baltimore. Friends of Beanes asked Key to negotiate his release. Though he accomplished this, Key and Beanes were required to remain aboard the warship because they had heard British plans to attack Fort McHenry, at the mouth of Baltimore Harbor. Key watched the bombardment through the night and was so moved the next morning to see the flag still flying, he immediately drafted a poem on an envelope. Published originally as The Defense of Fort McHenry, his work was renamed shortly thereafter. Long linked Enwith the glish drinking song, Anacreon in d Banner was Heaven, The a traditional, unofficial national anthem long before Congress formally adopted in on March 3, 1931. Ironically, the flag Key saw was an anomaly it had 15 stripes (and 15 stars). The Smithsonian Institution has custody of it today. The text above is based on Key's personal transcription of his envelope draft. Star-Spangle- then-popula- r, Star-Spangle- now-obscur- e, to the far ends of the Earth. For instance, on April 6, 1909, the world read Cmdr. Robert E. Peary's dispatch: "Stars and Stripes nailed to the North Pole." Historians Bolesiaw and Marie-Louis-e Mastai record that the flag was raised on an ice lance, not a wooden pole. The Mastais explained that Commander Peary carried the silken, ensign around his body for several years, planting fragments as markers in five successive locations to mark his farthest progress north. He reserved the largest piece a band cut across diagonally to include both stars and stripes to serve as a permanent record at the top of the globe. That flag was replaced in 1960 with the first flag by a member of the atomic submarine Sea Dragon. Less than a decade later, on Sunday, July 20, 1969, the world watched as two Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin Jr., planted a Stars and Stripes on the surface of the moon. The flag was taken even farther gold-fringe- 50-st- d ar wire-frame- when d an unmanned American spacecraft, marked with the American flag, landed on Mars and sent pictures of itself back to Earth. The occasion was in 1976 as the United States celebrated its bicentennial inde- pendence. The Stars and Stripes first flew in a Flag Day celebration in Hartford, Conn., in 1861, the first summer of the Civil War. Since then, the day has been observed by popular events across the country. Nevertheless, it wasn't until 1949 that Congress made this day a permanent observance. The measure was signed into law by President Truman. Though not a federal holiday, public officials, schools, various organiza- tions and individuals generally recognize the day as a time to give thanks and to honor the history and heritage of the country that this flag represent, as the last stanza of the Star Spangled Banner so aptly says: "Blest with vict'ry and peace may the heav 'n rescued land Praise the power that hath made and preserv'd us as a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto 'In God is our trust!' And the banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!'" star-spangl- ed |