Little Known Flag Trivia from the Army National Guard

By Paisley Kirkpatrick

I am a member of DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) and at our last meeting we had a guest speaker who gave us an informative accounting of the American flag. I found it very interesting and wanted to share some of the facts he gave us that you might find interesting as well.

During the manufacture of the flag, the material left over is never allowed to fall upon the floor. It always falls into containers.

The flag planted on the moon is made of nylon and set in an aluminum frame.

Miniature flags of the 40 United States and 124 United Nations were carried to the moon by the astronauts and brought back to Earth. These flags were distributed by President Nixon to the governors of the states and to the head of members of the United Nations.

The ball at the top of the flagpole is called a 'truck'. On an official government installation, inside the truck is a .45 caliber bullet, a .38 caliber bullet and a bullet for an M-16 rifle. In the event the truck falls and hits the ground, it is designed to break into 13 pieces, representing the original colonies.

At the base of each flagpole on an official government installation is a box buried in concrete. This box contains one saber, a .38 caliber pistol and a book of matches. In the event the enemy overtakes the last government installation, the survivor is to defend the flag with the saber and pistol and burn the flag with the matches so that the enemy cannot capture the flag.

There should be no guide wires on a flagpole. It must be free standing.

At military funerals, the 21-gun salute stands for the sum of the numbers in the year 1776.

After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it takes on the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington, and the Sailors and Marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, who were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the Armed Forces of the United States, preserving for us the rights, privileges and freedoms we enjoy today.

Betsy Ross Flag and the current flag

The flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the American flag, is the national flag of the United States. It consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (referred to specifically as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternate with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states of the United States of America, and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, and became the first states in the U.S. Nicknames for the flag include The Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, and The Star-Spangled Banner.