The arrival of Veterans Day calls attention to something that happened 90 years ago on Nov. 11, 1926. That’s when a national museum of World War I opened in Missouri. The conflict itself was spangled with WWI flags. The National World War I Museum and Memorial, its official name, was sited in Kansas City because… continue
Wars throughout the centuries – large or small, won or lost, justified or not – have two things in common: flags and veterans. The flags fly as veterans march away – and back home, many of them injured in mind or body. A common term for such men and women is “wounded warriors,” a phrase… continue
It happened 100 years ago on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Soldiers from England, France and Germany, who had been killing one another in the trenches of World War I, stopped for a brief time. Hoisting white truce flags, they crawled over the tops of their trenches. The spontaneous event is known as the Christmas… continue
In July 1917, Mrs. Charles Signer of Olympia, Washington, did something involving a flag that was worthy of attention in the newspaper. But her action didn’t include the American flag. Rather, it focused on a flag that was brand new to the world. “First Service Flag Will Be Hoisted in Olympia” read the headline. Mrs…. continue
Sometimes, history repeats itself in perfect intervals. For example, 2014 continues the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, marks the centenary of the First World War and begins the observance of the 75th anniversary of World War II, which broke out in 1939. Over that span, American flags were draped over the coffins of tens… continue