Love of the Flag becomes a Collection of Flags

Walking along San Diego’s Embarcadero as a young adult, watching the American Flag fluttering in the ocean breeze, I felt my first love for the Flag.  During 24 years of military service, my love for the Flag grew, seeing it fly around the world.

During my first deployment, to Japan, I stood at attention every morning as the U.S. and Japanese national anthems were played back-to-back.  I marveled at how these two former foes could now become close allies.  Following the 9/11 attacks, Americans rallied around the Flag.  Flag sales hit record numbers as images of fire fighters raising the flag over Ground Zero flooded the media.  Following Hurricane Katrina, residents hung Flags from leafless trees to say, “We may have lost everything, but we are still here, and we are still Americans!”  During my last deployment, to Iraq, the American Flag flew only in specific places and at specific times, trying to send the message, “We are here to help, not occupy.”

The Flag of the United States of America is more than three primary colors and three basic shapes.  It is the symbol we cling to in times of national crisis.  It represents the people and history of our country. 

While visiting Colonial Williamsburg with my family in 2009, I purchased my first historic American Flag reproduction, the Grand Union.  With the help of my wife, the collection has since grown to 30 flags spanning 1765 through 1959.

It is my privilege to share the collection with the community at the Veterans Plaza of Northern Colorado every Flag Day.  The flags tell stories of Americans like Elizbeth Ross, a Philadelphia widow struggling to keep her business afloat, Grace Wisher, a Baltimore seamstress’ apprentice who helped make the Star-Spangled Banner, William Carney, the first African American Medal of Honor recipient and so many others.  Visitors to the Plaza are interested to learn about two centuries of changes to the Flag and the stories of the diverse people who gave us our Flag.

Most of the flags and their stories presented on this website are part of the collection, although some are yet to be added.