What the Flag Means to Me

Old Glory 

I’ve been asked some variation of this questions many times over the years. What does the American flag mean to you? Well… since I was nine years old I wanted nothing more than to be a United States Marine. Poster hung proudly on my wall and everything. I was of a very malleable age when I watched planes piloted by terrorist’s crash into various places in my country further solidifying my need to serve. Fast forward 10 year and I’m at the well trained end of some very powerful weaponry deep in the country that harbored those responsible for creating the cowards who took so many lives on that September day. And… I hadn’t forgotten. At 12 years old I watched Americans jump from buildings because it was their best option at the time. Listened as many rushed a cockpit and gave the ultimate sacrifice. Watched first responders stare death in the face as their world literally collapsed around them.  

Unlike some, I grew up with a flag on the house and always taught how important it is to keep it in nice shape and fly it proudly no matter what. Now I run a business built around American Pride from Red, White and Blue trucks to taller flag poles than everyone on the street. The red, white and blue is something my friends will tell you I truly bleed. I have returned from tours of duty at all hours of the day to aisles of hundreds of people waving American flags of all sizes welcoming our return. Deep down this is what we fight for. I carried a folded flag with me in my pack in Afghanistan because it was important to us that men who gave their lives in battle left the battlefield draped in Old Glory. Unfortunately I used entirely too many of these, personally draping them over my brother’s mangled bodies before they were loaded onto medivac helicopters never to see their families again.  

What does the American flag mean to me? It means true blood, sweat and tears fighting in the hopes our kids may not have to. It means fear in the enemy’s hearts, when American’s get to an austere environment and the first thing we do is fly that symbol high. How much more bold does it get? We go to country after country in history and send old glory right up the first thing resembling a flag pole as high as possible. America is here to stay. It was the first thing placed at the top of the rubble at the world trade center saying you can’t beat us! I’ve traveled to countries all over the world, there are none of them… none, which fly as many flags as we do as a country. It means pride in where you come from.  

What does the Old Glory mean to me? It means draping her time after time over caskets and flying them back to the United States to be dispersed throughout the country back to their home towns. All the while wrapped in her love. It means handing them folded to mothers, fathers, wives and children knowing this is all they have to hold anymore from their son. It means holding grown men’s hands as they take their last breath as heroes clutching the cloth in the other. That symbol of freedom so tightly as if it were a blanket of protection. It means finishing what you started. It means overdoing everything. It means standing up for what’s right. It means never backing down. It means unmeasurable anger when I see the disrespect of it. It means not living in fear that a war will be fought at our door step. It means raising my kids to respect it and cherish it as it will have its own meaning to them someday.  

There are two dates on your tomb stone, I want my dash in the middle to be remembered for years to come. This country, the men and women who have fought for it and the American flag have provided the freedoms my family needs to succeed. They are opportunities… opportunities to write our own history books. I want our kids to read about how everyone feared us and how we fly our flag everywhere we are. I don’t mind when my kids are in the back seat and I pull over and take someone’s desecrated/ tattered flag down from their flagpole in their yard. I’m not ashamed of how much I love the flag and this country! Anyone who knows me well will tell you this is the truest of statements about me.  

I love this country, this flag and what it stands for to me. These are MY reasons and I don’t expect nor care if anyone agrees or disagrees with them as they are mine. 

- US Marine Staff Sergeant Veteran, Afghanistan War