What Does the Flag Mean to You?

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“It means everything to me,” answered Dr. Buford Usry with tears in his eyes when I asked what the American flag meant to him.

Dr. Usry was my very first interview with the American Family Association nearly ten years ago. I never expected to be so touched by the living history lesson he embodied or the lasting impact he would have on my life.

As I arrived at his home to conduct the interview, American flags lined his driveway. His home was decorated with his World War II memorabilia, Marine Corps insignia, and an abundance of American flags. He and his wife radiated patriotism and great pride in our country.

Seventy-two years prior to my meeting them, Dr. Usry had left behind his young wife and baby girl when drafted to WWII. In 1945, he was sent to Iwo Jima – a mission that was only supposed to last 3 days.

However, war rarely follows any schedule.

After the first two waves of Marines landed on the black volcanic ash beaches of the island, Japanese gunfire rained down relentlessly.

As a part of the third wave, Dr. Usry was forced to witness the death and devastation unfolding before him. With no time to think, he courageously jumped out of the Higgins boat when commanded and charged into what many described as a nightmare on earth.

After 4 days of intense fighting and terror, the first American flag was raised on Japanese soil atop Mount Suribachi. Though the young soldiers had barely eaten, slept, or had the opportunity to use the bathroom, when the flag was raised, so was the morale of the young heroes.

“We were fighting down at the base when something caught my attention on top of Suribachi,” Dr. Usry recalled. “It was Old Glory. A sense of security fell over us and we fought harder.”

Shortly after, Dr. Usry was hit with enemy fire.

With tears streaming down his face, he told me, “That flag was the last thing I saw, but it gave me hope.”

***

For 249 years, the American flag has stood as a symbol of hope, sacrifice, unity, and perseverance.

The first official American flag, the “Stars and Stripes,” was adopted by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, during the American Revolution. It had 13 alternating red and white stripes and 13 white stars arranged in a circle on a blue field, representing the original colonies. While Betsy Ross is often credited with sewing the first flag, many historians believe Francis Hopkins, a New Jersey delegate of the Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence, likely played a major role in the actual design.

Thirty-six years later, another historic flag would also be sewn during a time of war – the “Pickersgill flag.”

Mary Pickersgill and her mother operated a flag-making business out of their home in Baltimore. It was common for them to make military flags, merchant ship flags, and signal flags for customers connected to the harbor and the military. However, nothing could have prepared her for the special order placed by Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead in 1813.

He sent soldiers to her house from nearby Fort McHenry with specific orders to make the flag “so large that the British will have no difficulty seeing it from a distance.”

Mary enlisted her daughter, Caroline, along with two teenage nieces and a teenage indentured servant to assist in the daunting undertaking.

America had been at war with Great Britain for a year due to the British navy stopping all American ships at sea and capturing American soldiers.

As the War of 1812 escalated, the ladies feverishly sewed for six weeks, often working until midnight, never knowing when the British would attack Baltimore.

Mary and her crew quickly found that her home was not large enough to piece the enormous flag together. Each of the 15 stripes was two feet wide, and each of the 15 stars spanned two feet across. (This is the only official U.S. flag with 15 stripes, representing the 15 states in the Union at the time.)

Eventually, the ladies transferred the yards and yards of red, white, and blue woolen cloth to the floor of a building nearby. When finally completed, it was the largest flag in the world, measuring an astonishing 30 by 42 feet. When Mary presented the fifty-pound flag to the soldiers at Fort McHenry, it took nine soldiers to raise it up above the fort.

In August 1814, British troops burned Washington, D.C., including the U.S. Capitol and the White House. As the Pickersgills and Baltimore residents watched the flames from a distance, fear spread that their city would be next.

Once Washington, D.C. was reduced to ash, British forces turned their attention to Baltimore, a key American port. To reach it, they first had to conquer Fort McHenry, which guarded the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor.

On the morning of September 13, 1814, the British navy began a heavy bombardment of the fort. Explosions echoed through the harbor as American defenders endured hours of continuous naval gunfire.

Thinking defeat was inevitable, an American Army general ordered his soldiers to surrender; however, Lieutenant Colonel Armistead was determined to press on and instead defied his orders.

Before the attack on Fort McHenry began, a lawyer had visited one of the British ships to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, an American physician who was captured during the British invasion of Maryland. The negotiations were successful, but because the lawyer had learned of the planned attack on Baltimore, the British would not release them until the assault was complete.

From the ship, the lawyer watched nervously through the night.

In a letter to a friend, he described the experience saying that they “paced the deck for the remainder of the night in painful suspense, watching with intense anxiety for the return of the day, and looking every few minutes at their watches to see how long they must wait for it; and as soon as it dawned, and before it was light enough to see objects at a distance, their glasses were turned to the fort, uncertain whether they should see there the stars and stripes or the flag of the enemy. At length the light came, and they saw that ‘our flag was still there.’”

The lawyer, Francis Scott Key, and his British captors had no difficulty seeing the Pickersgill flag flying over the fort from a distance.

Inspired by the sight, Key wrote the poem “Defense of Fort M’Henry” on September 14, 1814.

Three days later, he took the poem to a judge to seek his opinion of it. Judge Nicholson was so pleased, he immediately sent it to a printer. In less than an hour of printing, it was all over town. The American patriots were deeply moved as it captured both the anguish and triumph of a young nation fighting for survival. This poem later became our national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Mary Pickersgill was compensated $409.90 for her meticulous labor – the equivalent of $8-10,000 today. However, the sight and symbolism of that flag were priceless.

Though the American flag has physically changed over the years, the very sight of it since 1777 has identified our country as a beacon of light, unified our nation under one God, and given hope to every soldier, like Dr. Usry, who has looked upon it in the most desperate of times.

As beautiful as it may be, our “Stars and Stripes” will never be merely a piece of fabric held together by thread, but a solid testament woven by blood and sacrifice to ensure the blessings of liberty.

Click here to read Dr. Buford Usry’s full story: AFA Journal - Duty, Faith, Love mark the life of Dr. Buford Usry, Iwo Jima survivor.

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