FAMOUS FLAG FACTS

Don’t tread on me

The naval flag, 1775-76, combined two American symbols of liberty – stripes and the rattlesnake. The snake was inspired by a quote from Benjamin Franklin in 1751. Franklin said that in retaliation against Britain sending convicted criminals to America, America would return the favor with rattlesnakes.

The Continental Colors

Also known as the Grand Union flag, 1775-77, it was used by George Washington’s Army. The Stars and Stripes was developed to get rid of England’s flag in the canton.

Iwo Jima

The battle in the Pacific for the island of Iwo Jima was the most costly for Marines during World War II. It is the site of the famous flag-raising on Mount Suribachi. Marines raised a small flag on the highest point of the island that became a symbol of inspiration. A second, larger flag was raised later and famously photographed. Both flags are in the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

POW pride

A small American flag known as the Dramesi flag, on display at the Nixon Presidential Library & Museum, has enormous patriotic symbolism.

Air Force pilot Col. John A. Dramesi was shot down over North Vietnam and captured in 1967. He is considered the only Vietnam War prisoner to never break under barbaric torture and say anything other than name, rank and serial number.

Dramesi was a POW for five years, 11 months and two days. He smuggled the flag out of the camp upon his release.

Ground Zero

After the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, three firefighters raising a flag were captured in a famous photo. The firefighters took the flag from a yacht called the Star of America anchored in the nearby harbor and raised it on the damaged flagpole at Ground Zero.

The flag was raised at Yankee Stadium and traveled the world, but when the original owners wanted it returned to donate it to the Smithsonian Institution, they discovered it was not the 3-by 5-foot flag from their boat. The original flag was returned in 2016 after it was donated by a Marine who had been given it on Veterans Day in 2007.

Out of this world

The U.S. raised six flags on the moon during the Apollo missions. Their current condition is unknown, but NASA experts say that after more than 50 years in the extreme conditions on the moon, it is unlikely the flags have endured.

The flag’s raising was strictly symbolic, as the United Nations Treaty on Outer Space precluded any territorial claims by the U.S.

It took about a week and a half to make the flag, shown next to a quarter for scale. It was displayed and saluted by the American prisoners at night and flew until morning. In the morning, the flag was saluted again and then hidden in a mosquito net.

Thomas E. Franklin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo known as “Raising the Flag at Ground Zero.”

A NASA photo of the Apollo 11 flag that went to the moon. The flag assembly and shrouds were said to cost $5.50, NASA says.

Marines on Iwo Jima take one flag down and raise another.