Get your flag ready

I have a USA flag that flew on my townhouse in D.C. (downwind from the Pentagon) on the original 9/11.

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As my wife recounts … First I felt it. Then I heard it. Then I heard sirens like I never heard before. I got fresh food and water for the cats, before turning on the news, because I had a feeling I might forget the cats if I did it the other way around. By the time I turned on the news, and looked out the window, and turned my gaze to where I saw the Pentagon flaming and smoking across the Potomac River, Bolling Air Force Base had just clamped down into Threat Condition Delta. For days thereafter, only the military police were allowed out of buildings, except in controlled conditions in which people were escorted either to base housing or to base gates to go home to off-base housing. Later, after sunset that night of 11 September 2001, the wind shifted, and the Pentagon smoke drifted southwest, over a setting moon. It looked like the Angel Of Death in Cecil B. DeMille’s movie The Ten Commandments. … My wife, like most military spouses, was alone nearly every time when drama struck. The original 9/11 was no different. I was down in Florida, on temporary duty with Central Command and Special Operations Command. It wasn’t until sunset (DC time) that I was able to reach my wife by phone. On most sunny days, here in Eagan, I fly a new flag at full staff height, thanks to a good friend in the Air Force Association (AFA) who helped me get a new flag pole put in. He also gave me the new flag. After our flag raising, whichever of my kids is ‘color guard commander’ (the preferred, and argued-for role) then chooses the spot for us to stand in the yard for the Pledge of Allegiance. We line up, check our ‘interval’, and then we join in as our Color Guard Commander begins the pledge. All the while, planes intermittently fly overhead; we’re only several miles from the ends of two runways of an international airport. After the pledge, we check our garden and the kids take turns on the swings. And we hear the occasional flapping of the flag in the breezes and the snapping of the lines against the pole. Thereafter, throughout the day, the flag catches my eye, splashing its bold colors against the dark monochromatic green tree background in my neighborhood. But on 9/11/2010, my kids will see a new type of flag ceremony. We will fully raise a flag, as normal, though the flag will be the veteran, not the new one. And, upon topping the mast, we will then slowly lower the old tattered & faded flag a quarter of the pole’s height before we tie it off. Thanks to my good friend in the AFA, my tattered flag that saw 9/11, will again take to the winds on my home’s new flagpole. It will, of course, be at half staff. I, too, may be a little different on that day. My eyes might mist a little. My jaw might be a little more tense. And in my heart I’ll carry the story my tattered flag witnessed. I now understand what I once only studied, about Americans surging with determination after Pearl Harbor. My kids will learn a story too, shortly after we tie off the flag and I say the pledge with perhaps a wavering voice. It’s been nine years. I’m glad my old veteran is still free to fly in the breeze. - Paul Paul Pekarek, Major, USAF (Retired)

GET YOUR FLAG READY!

Please join us in this FLY THE FLAG campaign and PLEASE forward this Email immediately to everyone in your address book asking them to also forward it. If you forward this email to least 11 people and each of those people do the same ... you get the idea. THE PROGRAM: On Saturday, September 11th, 2010, an American flag should be displayed outside every home, apartment, office, and store in the United States . Every individual should make it their duty to display an American flag on this ninth anniversary of one our country's worst tragedies. We do this honor of those who lost their lives on 9/11, their families, friends and loved ones who continue to endure the pain, and those who today are fighting at home and abroad to preserve our cherished freedoms. In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, our country was bathed in American flags as citizens mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. Sadly, those flags have all but disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us through some tough times and it shouldn't take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity. Our American flag is the fabric of our country and together we can prevail over terrorism of all kinds.