Flags of the USA

	50-Star Flag #3 for this Memorial Day Weekend is the current 50-star flag which became the longest flying version of our flag in 2007. It’s been our flag for nearly 64 years. It’s the 27th version of the U.S. flag since 1777. Two of the more famous photos of this current version were taken on the Moon and at the 9/11 site atop the rubble of the collapsed Twin Towers. On Memorial Day, the flag should be flown at half-staff until noon. The proper way to post a flag at half-staff is to briskly hoist it all the way to the top, pause at the peak, then solemnly lower it back down halfway. When retiring the half-staff flag, raise it back to the top, pause again, and then lower it to the base. When half-staff is not possible, a black ribbon may be attached. New versions of the flag are typically flown for the first time at Ft. McHenry. Here's a unique 50-star flag story. The flag in question is called the Legacy Flag and amassed some 1.3 billion miles in space. Here is One Small Flag's Incredible Journey.
	48-Star Flag #2 for this Memorial Day Weekend is the 48-star flag which was the U.S. standard from 1912 to 1959. I was born under this flag. This flag is considerably more used and worn than yesterday’s 15-star flag as it's been in the family since before I was born. The flag in the iconic WW2 photo of the U.S. Marines raising the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945 was a 48-star flag . The 48-star flag came in two different star patterns. Early on, the star field had six staggered rows of eight stars each, half of the rows placed closer to “the hoist” (pole) and the alternating half closer to “the fly” (away from the pole). The flag in today’s photo is the other version where the rows and columns align to make a perfect rectangle. One of the earliest publications to mention the 48-star flag was in 1898 by the Butler Citizen, the newspaper of Butler, PA. I lived in Butler, PA from 3rd to 9th grade. By the way, none of the U.S. flag versions have ever been decommissioned, so all are officially AOK to display today. More on the 48-star flag.
	33-Star (Fort Sumter) Happy Flag Day! Our flag for today has one of the more unusual star patterns (“diamond shaped”). There were several 33-star configurations, but this one is referred to as the Fort Sumter Flag as it was the one flying there in 1861 when the fort was bombarded by Confederate forces thus starting the Civil War. Photos taken afterward show the stripes of the flag were severely damaged but that all 33 stars of the “union” (the blue area of the flag) were untouched. Prophetic. The photo below was taken at Fort Sumter (Charleston, SC) last year for the raising of the flag in which we participated along with our California grandkids. An "End of the Civil War" celebration was held at Fort Sumter in 1865 but is largely forgotten as that night Abraham Lincoln was shot at the theater. More on the Fort Sumter flag.
	15-Star (Fort McHenry) I put out a flag today for the 4th of July. But not just any of the U.S. flags. It's the "Star-Spangled Banner," the 15-star flag that flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. It's the only USA flag to have 15 stripes as well. It's the flag Francis Scott Key saw the morning after the attack on Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 that inspired him to write our national anthem. There were actually 18 states at the time, but the making of a new flag to account for new states had not yet happened. In addition to 15 stars, there were 15 stripes. At one point they planned for one stripe for each state as well as one star but gave that up soon after this flag and went back to 13 stripes as it is today. It can also be recognized by a red stripe bordering the blue field at the bottom; on today's flag, a white stripe borders the bottom of the blue. It's "spangled" because the stars are all mixed in their orientations (they're all oriented the same today). We visited Fort McHenry on a 2022 trip to Baltimore (photo below of actual size flag). We've also seen the actual Star-Spangled Banner from Fort McHenry at the Smithsonian's American History Museum on the Mall in DC.
	13-Star ("Betsy Ross") For the last day of National Flag Week we're flying the 13-star "Betsy Ross" Flag. Flag Week is a 7-day period in June of each year that contains June 14th and is proclaimed by the sitting President. It was on June 14, 1777 that the Second Continental Congress passed a resolution saying, "RESOLVED, that the flag of the 13 United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: That the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." There were a number of variations that met this description. It's clear where "Stars and Stripes" comes from. While it can't be confirmed who actually made or designed the first flag, it seems Betsy Ross' name will be forever associated with the first flag. Flag Day was first proclaimed by President Wilson in 1916 and became an official national observance day in 1949 when Congress approved and President Truman signed a bill. There was some debate over the stars being 5-point or 6-point; 5-point won out. Some suggest the circle (or "wreath" or "medallion") of stars was to indicate no one state was dominant. There were many 13-star patterns as the 1777 law was not very specific about the layout. One of the more unusual 13-star flags is the "Great Luminary Pattern" of 1790 where the overall pattern forms one large "arching" star. This became the country's flag when New Jersey and Pennsylvania were added to the Union (as part of the original 13 colonies).
	Utah State Flag When traveling on the Rocky Mountaineer (see our 2024 Mountaineer trip), a greeting or send-off committee stands trackside waving their hands to the arriving or departing passengers, with two flags: the country flag and the flag of the state the train is in at the moment. Pictured at left is the Utah flag at our last stop near Moab, UT. This new "Beehive" flag of Utah was just adopted on March 9, 2024. Here's its Wikipedia description. The original flag, now called the Historic State Flag, remains an official Utah flag and was originally adopted in 1913 with its latest iteration in 2011 (image below).