SHAKO: Flag Day 2024; U.S. Army’s Birthday

TWO EVENTS TO MARK IN ONE DAY.

June 14th is a double-barreled day of significance in the United States. It’s the U.S. Army’s 249th Birthday and it’s also Flag Day, when Americans celebrate our national emblem — the Stars and Stripes.

Soldiers from the ceremonial units of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment perform during a 2024 Twilight Tattoo show at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia on May 22, 2024. The event celebrates the strength, traditions, and history of the U.S. Army. (U.S. Army Photo by Sergeant Natalie Pantalos)

Happy Birthday, U.S. Army.

On June 14, 1775 — at the urging of John Adams (the future 2nd U.S. president) — the Continental Congress, in effect, created the U.S. Army by voting $2 million in funding for the colonial militias around Boston and New York City.

Congress also ordered the raising of ten companies of expert riflemen from Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Together with the ragtag militias in New England and New York they would form the first Continental Army. George Washington of Virginia, one of the few colonials with military command experience, took command in Cambridge, Massachusetts on July 3, 1775.

When the Revolutionary War ended in 1783, Congress ordered the last elements of the Continental Army to disband. Its remaining soldiers were discharged on June 2, 1784. Congress retained two companies to safeguard military arms and stores. The next day, Congress voted to form, from this nucleus, the 1st American Regiment for national service. By the fall of 1784, the whole U.S. Army, less than a thousand men, was this lone regiment, consisting of eight infantry and two artillery companies.

The 1st American Regiment, a predecessor to the U.S. 3rd Infantry Regiment (in the photo above) has an interesting, but troubled history, underscoring the difficulties the infant United States had to “provide for the common defence” in the period before the Constitution was adopted and ratified.

Washington taking command of the American army under the old elm at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1775. (Photo: Library of Congress) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

 

You’re A Grand Old Flag.

June 14 is also Flag Day in the United States, to commemorate the day in 1777 when Congress adopted the 13-star, 13-red-and-white-striped flag as the one-year-old republic’s national flag. Flag day was celebrated on various days in various ways around the United States until the 20th century.

In 1916, after two years of war in Europe and the Middle East took millions of lives, it looked like the United States would be drawn into the horrific conflict known as the Great War. To inspire patriotism, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day. In August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress — but it’s not an official federal holiday.

Your 4GWAR editor thought the best way to commemorate this day would be to showcase some of the photos of the flag taken by the great photographers of the U.S. military.

Airmen march in formation during graduation from basic military training at Joint Base San Antonio, April 25, 2024. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Ava Leone) Please click on the photo to enlarge the image.

More than 600 Airmen assigned to Flights 301-315 graduated from U.S. Air Force Basic Military Training at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas on April 24-25, 2024. Lieutenant General DeAnna Burt, Deputy Chief of U.S. Space Force for Cyber, Space and Nuclear Operations reviewed the graduation ceremony.

(U.S. Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser / Arlington National Cemetery) Please click on the photo to enlarge the image.

The photo above shows Arlington National Cemetery Superintendent Charles Alexander Jr. helping facilities maintenance employees hang U.S. flags in the Memorial Amphitheater in preparation for the National Memorial Day Observance at the cemetery in Arlington, Virginia on  May 20, 2024.

(U.S. Army photo by Private First Class Isaiah Mount)

French children welcome World War II veteran Richard Stewart to 80th anniversary of D-Day festivities on June 3, 2024 in Normandy. A former communications lineman for the U.S. Army Air Forces’ 459th Signal Construction Battalion, Stewart landed on Omaha Beach in July, 1944. His unit provided area communications support for Army Air Forces commands in France, Belgium and Germany until the end of the war.

(U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Corporal Steven Wells) Click on photo to enlarge the image.

The Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard conducted practice drills while at the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia on May 20, 2024. The horse Marines traveled from Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, to the National Capital Region for the first time in more than a decade to participate in a series of events designed to support Marine Corps recruiting nationwide.

Sadly, another role for the Stars and Stripes is to accompany the remains of those who gave “the last full measure” for their country on the journey to their final resting place. Those returning from overseas, pass through Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. The mortuary team at Dover works to make sure each flag draped over a casket of a fallen service member is immaculate.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Jason Minto) Click on the photo to enlarge the image.

Preparation of the flag consists of ironing the flag and removing any lint or clipping strings. In the  photo above, Senior Airman Jocelyn Rosado straightens the stripes on a U.S. flag during the ironing process on May 21, 2024.

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SHAKO is an occasional 4GWAR posting on military history, traditions and culture. For the uninitiated, a shako is the tall, billed headgear worn by many armies from the Napoleonic era to about the time of the American Civil War. It remains a part of the dress or parade uniform of several military organizations like the corps of cadets at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York.