Fort Belvoir Honors Flag Day and Army's Birthday

Fort Belvoir honors Flag Day and the Army’s 236th Birthday today.  The event begins at 11 a.m. in front of post headquarters, Bldg. 269, Flagler Road, and is open to the public.  

The American flag is considered the oldest symbol of the United States.  In 1949, President Harry S Truman declared June 14 as Flag Day.  It was the day in 1777 that the first American flag was born.

Britain’s Union Jack had flown over the colonies in America since 1607.  But in 1775, in a show of unity, the colonists designed the Grand Union flag.  It had 13 stripes to represent the 13 colonies, and a small Union Jack in the upper right-hand corner to represent loyalty to Britain.  The Grand Union flag was also called the Continental Colors or Congress flag. 

On July 4, 1776, the colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, and almost a year later, on June 14, 1777, they designated a new flag.  On that day the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating, “Resolved, That the Flag of the United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white, that the Union be 13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation.”  That new constellation was the new country. 

The first American flag may have been designed by a congressman named Francis Hopkinson, or by a committee.  Although historical evidence proves that Betsy Ross did sew American flags, it is not certain that she made the first one. 

While Francis Scott Key watched the fighting in Baltimore Harbor during the War of 1812, he noticed that once the bombing stopped, the American flag was still flying.  He wrote The Star-Spangled Banner, which in 1931 Congress named the national anthem.  The very flag that inspired Francis Scott Key is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in D.C.

In 1831 a Massachusetts sea captain named William Driver nicknamed the American flag “Old Glory.”

As the country grew, Congress decided that after a state was admitted into the Union, a new star representing that state would be added to the flag on the Fourth of July.  Since 1777, the flag has changed 26 times.  The current 50-star flag has flown since 1960.

The American Flag Foundation sponsors Pause for the Pledge at the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine on Flag Day.  The free event, only an hour away in Baltimore, features music and fireworks.