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Happy 4th of July!


Kit Sober
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A nice 4th of July story:

50-Star Flag Turns 50 Thanks to One Tenacious Teen

Chris Epting ContributorAOL News (July 3) -- This Fourth of July marks the 50th anniversary of something special: the birth of the 50-star flag.

While it might not seem like much of an accomplishment, there's a patriotic story behind the design of the flag. In 1958, a 17-year-old Ohio teenager, Robert Heft, had a high school assignment to create something of his own imagination and concept.

1278088099979.JPEG AP Photo/Byron RollinsPresident Dwight Eisenhower holds a corner of a new 50-star flag displayed for the first time at the White House on Aug. 21, 1959. Minutes earlier, the president signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii to statehood.

Heft, a history and political buff, knew that the United States flag had not been changed since 1912. He also had a hunch about Alaska and Hawaii soon becoming states.

Based on that, he took his grandparents' 48-star flag and cut it up, figuring out how to make room for two extra stars in an unobtrusive way. His "new" design featured five rows of six stars (adding up to 30 stars) alternating with four rows of five stars (adding up to 20 stars).

Heft's teacher, Stan Pratt, was unimpressed and gave Heft a B-, but added that if Heft could convince Congress to adopt the design someday, he'd bump the grade up to an A.

On that challenge, a year later Heft asked his congressman, Rep. Walter Moeller, to take the flag to Washington after Alaska and Hawaii were admitted to the union.

Early in 1960, Heft received a call from President Dwight Eisenhower. Ike told him his flag design had been chosen from more than 1,500 entries. Despite the fact that several identical designs were supposedly submitted along with Heft's, on July 4 he was in D.C. with Eisenhower to watch the adoption ceremony of his flag design. (It has been suggested that Heft's design was chosen because he submitted an actual flag as opposed to just a design sketch.)

That day, the very flag Heft sewed at his grandparents' house was hoisted over the U.S. Capitol dome. After that, the same flag flew over every U.S. state capital building and has flown over the White House under five administrations.

1277963909629.JPEG Bob Schutz, APPresident Dwight D. Eisenhower takes a close look in his White House office at the 49-star flag, which was later raised over Philadelphia's Independence Hall on July 4, 1959, and then taken to the state capitol in Alaska.

Returning home from D.C. in 1960, Heft also learned that Pratt had given him that promised A.

In the years after his flag became famous, Heft became a public speaker and went wherever he could to talk about his flag. He visited all 50 states to give speeches, went to 57 countries and was a White House visitor 14 times (under nine presidents). Heft also spent 28 years as mayor of Napoleon, Ohio.

So where is the original famous flag today?

In 1998, Heft put the flag up for auction on eBay, with a "Buy It Now" price of $250,000. There were no takers, so he retained the flag for his personal collection. He died from a heart attack last December.

Several weeks ago, from within his former mobile home in Saginaw, Mich., Heft's family members held a public auction to sell off his many flag-related pieces of memorabilia. It included Heft's former Michigan vanity license plate (reading "US FLAG"), a framed letter to Heft from former President Bill Clinton, replica flags, flag stationery, flag toys, flag toothpicks -- but no original 50-state flag.

That precious American artifact is stored in a safe, dutifully cared for by Saginaw Township attorney Darrell R. Zolton. (Zolton and Tammy Allen, a niece of Heft's, represent a trust on behalf of Heft.)

Zolton told AOL News that Heft, who never married and had no children, "had created his own will that specified that money generated from the sale of the flag is to go to two great-nephews and one great-niece." Zolton also possesses a 51-star flag Heft created for future use, perhaps in case Puerto Rico ever becomes a state.

"We're going through the process of documenting everything we can in regards to the flags for the appropriate buyers, and Mr. Heft's life is an interesting one to trace," Zolton said. "He lived a fairly simple, spartan lifestyle most of his life, but he was a wonderful public speaker and did whatever he could to bring his story to the people."

Potential buyers of the flag(s) are encouraged to contact Zolton's office.

And while the public may not see the flag fly for some time, there is a place where Heft is still publicly acknowledged.

In 2003, the Ohio Historical Society placed a historical marker in front of a high school in Lancaster, Ohio -- the spot where Heft first presented his creation to Pratt.

The marker reads, "The design for the 50-star flag was born here at Lancaster High School in 1958 when student Robert Heft designed it for a history class project. ... Heft constructed a 50-star flag from an old 48-star flag using blue cloth to replace the field and white adhesive for the stars. ... President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the design the official American flag in 1960. It is the only flag in American history to have flown over the White House for more than five administrations."

Jeffrey Cottrell, a multimedia specialist at the Historical Society of Saginaw County at the Castle Museum, knew Heft during the last several years of his life.

"Bob always had a story for everyone," Cottrell said. "He was greatly loved in these parts, and while selfishly we'd love to see the flag in our museum, we'd completely understand if it made it to the Smithsonian, where, in all honesty, it probably belongs."

By the way, before Heft, there was already a precedent when it came to a teenager designing a high-profile flag. In 1927, 13-year-old Benny Benson created the flag for the territory of Alaska. His "Big Dipper" design, chosen from more than 700, still flies as the flag of the 49th state.

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I'm posting this not only because it is about the Declaration of Independence, but also because RR loved it so. We watched it together many times and discussed history and "the course of human events."

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Edited by doojable
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Six Boys And Thirteen Hands...

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, D. C. with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan during WW II.

More than one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue and as I got closer he asked 'Where are you guys from?'

I told him that we were from Wisconsin ...'Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story.'

James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, D C, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who had died. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up.. I videotaped him as he spoke to us and received his permission to share what he said. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak. Here are his words that night:

'My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo, Wisconsin ... My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called 'Flags of Our Fathers' which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.

'Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game. A game called 'War.' But it didn't turn out to be a game. Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people

who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old - and it was so hard that the ones who did make it home never even would talk to their families about it.

(He pointed to the statue) 'You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon from New Hampshire . If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph...a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. It was just boys who won the battle of

Iwo Jima ... Boys. Not old men.

'The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the 'old man' because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'

'The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona...Ira Hayes was one who walked off Iwo Jima...He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero'. He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?'

So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes carried the pain home with him and eventually died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 ten years after this picture was taken.

'The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop, Kentucky . A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night.' Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. Those neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

'The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley, from Antigo, Wisconsin , where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.' My dad never fished or even went to Canada . Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell 's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.

'You see, like Ira Hayes, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic. John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died in Iwo Jima , they writhed and screamed, without any medication or help with the pain.

'When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who

did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

'So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps. My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time.'

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.

One thing I learned while on tour with my 8th grade students in DC that is not mentioned here is..that if you look at the statue very closely and count the number of 'hands' raising the flag, there are 13. When the man who made the statue was asked why there were 13, he simply said the 13th hand was the hand of God.

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