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Posted on 06/13/2004 8:06:37 PM PDT by StarCMC
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Flag Day June 14, 2004 |
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I am the flag of the United States of America I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.
My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters. My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all. My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith. I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity. I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth. I am as old as my nation. I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people,for the people." I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism. I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display. Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country. I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations. I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth. Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.
I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity. If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots. Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom. As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less. Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth. Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty. God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.
Click the pics for music - mouse over for titles!
History of Flag Day
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VERY COOL!!!! Thanks for sharing!
NO SOUP FOR YOU!
Just heard a cool story -- the girl who will be the Miss Missouri representative to the Miss America pagent this year has, as her "platform" military awareness and support. She has written to over 600 military memebers and is compiling a book of their replies. Is that cool or what?? And she's really pretty too! Woo-hoo!!!!!
Thanks for posting the pictures Ms.Behavin!! Woo-hoo!!!
On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on June 14:
1736 Charles-Augustin de Coulomb physicist (formulated Coulomb's Law)
1805 Robert Anderson, Bvt Major General (Union Army), died in 1871
1811 Harriet Beecher Stowe author (Uncle Tom's Cabin)
1820 John Bartlett US, editor (compiled Familiar Quotations)
1855 Robert Marion La Follette Wisconsin, pres candidate (Progressive)
1856 Andrey Markov Russia, mathematician (Markov Chain)
1864 Alois Alzheimer Germany, psychiatrist/pathologist (Alzheimer Disease)
1868 Karl Landsteiner immunologist/pathologist (Nobel 1930)
1874 Edward Bowes radio host (Major Bowes Amateur Hour)
1908 John Scott Trotter Charlotte NC, orch leader (George Gobel Show)
1909 Burl Ives Hunt Ill, folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
1917 Lash La Rue Gretna La, cowboy actor (Lash of the West, Wyatt Earp)
1918 Dorothy McGuire Omaha Neb, actress (Old Yeller, Summer Magic)
1919 Sam Wanamaker Chic Ill, actor (Holocaust, Competition, Raw Deal)
1921 Gene Barry NYC, actor (Bat Masterson, Name of the Game, Burke's Law)
1925 Pierre Salinger newsman (ABC)/press secretary (John Kennedy)
1928 Ernesto (Che) Guevara Latin American terrorist
1929 Cy Coleman [Seymour Kaufman], songwriter (Witchcraft, Sweet Charity)
1940 Benjamin Earl Davidson (football: Oakland Raiders defensive end: Super Bowl II)
1943 Muff Mervyn Winwood singer (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin)
1946 Donald Trump master builder (Trump Towers/Plaza/Castle)
1954 Will Patton Charleston SC, actor (No Way Out, Ballzaire the Cajun)
1969 Steffi Graf West Germany, tennis player (Grand Slam 1988)
2160 Montgomery Edward Scott Aberdeen, Scotland (Star Trek)
That's ok -- it's gonna be too hot for soup today anyway!! Move along! he he he!! :o)
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Graphics and information from the MOH website.
((HUGS))Good morning, Star. How's it going?
Good morning Tonk! Look at TT!!! He sure looks good!
GUARINO, LAWRENCE NICHOLAS
Name: Lawrence Nicholas Guarino
Rank/Branch: O4/United States Air Force, pilot
Unit: 44th TFS
Date of Birth: circa 1923
Home City of Record: Newark NJ
Date of Loss: 14 June 1965
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 204500N 1043600E
Status (in 1973): Returnee
Category:
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: F105
Missions:
USA Air Corp - Flew 156 missions in WWII in Sicily, India, China and
Indo China. Other Personnel in Incident: none
Source: Compiled by P.O.W. NETWORK March 1997 from one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources, correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, personal interviews. Update 2001.
REMARKS: 021273 Released by DRV
SOURCE: WE CAME HOME copyright 1977 Captain and Mrs. Frederic A Wyatt (USNR Ret), Barbara Powers Wyatt, Editor P.O.W. Publications, 10250 Moorpark St., Toluca Lake, CA 91602 Text is reproduced as found in the original publication (including date and spelling errors).
LAWRENCE N. GUARINO Colonel - United States Air Force Shot Down: June 14,1965 Released: February 12, 1973
In June 1965 Colonel Guarino was flying an F-105 fighter plane. He had received his wings and commission 1943, making him the oldest rated pilot to be held in captivity. Flying had been his dream since his father had scraped together five dollars to take him on a flight around the local airport in an old Jenny. He knew all about pilots and aces of World War I. In fact he says he read popular aviation magazines "like a crazy man."
At age 19 he signed up for the aviation cadet program. During World War II he saw service in the North African and Italian campaigns. Later he flew with General Claire Chennault's Flying Tigers in China. He returned to civilian life and then was again recalled for the Korean conflict.
Now flying over North Vietnam, his plane was hit. "I had the rotten luck to land in a village not ten feet from a hut. The people had seen me coming down in the chute and had vacated the village. Sentries, armed with automatic rifles, posted on the surrounding hills, kept me under surveillance." It was then that he describes a unique encounter with Jesus Christ. "I had to stop packing up my gear because there He was standing right there. His toes were as high as this room and He was five or six stories tall. He said "Today I'm going to show you something" and I said "Lord I know you are." When asked about this experience, Colonel Guarino speaks warmly and says "I'm telling you, I saw Him standing there!"
Thus was the beginning of nearly eight years of prison during which the Lord sustained him. His tortures and persecutions were trying - such as no food for 46 days with his legs in blocks three weeks of that time. He etched a cross in his small cell and prayed often and fervently. At Clark Air Force Base the Colonel said "I couldn't have made it if it weren't for Jesus Christ and being able to look up and see Him in some of the trying times.
Now back with his wife, Evelyn, who was very active in POW/MIA programs, he is ready to face life with enthusiasm. His son, Allan, Captain, USAF, flew in the war in 1970. He has a wife and lovely daughter. Son, Tom, served three years in the Coast Guard and is a professional scuba diver in the Florida Keys. He is also married. Son, Ray, is married and has twin sons. Jeff started college in the fall.
It goes without saying that if it were not for the prayers of thousands of my friends and fellow Americans, some of whom had never heard my name before they wore my bracelet, I seriously doubt if I could have ever made it out of North Vietnam.
=========================
Lawrence Guarino retired from the United States Air Force as a Colonel. He and his wife Evelyn reside in Florida.
And received on July 4, 2001, Independance Day:
Today is the 26th anniversary of my retirement from the USAF. My son Allan flew over Vietnam while I was a prisoner in Hanoi, retired 2 years ago after 30 years of service. I still hear regularly from my flying buddies of 1943 as we flew against the Huns in Italy, we were only 20 years old then, now I am 79!! My how time flies, but it is a happy ending with lots of great memories, I can still get a kick out of thinking how we rammed around the skies in our Spitfires, our P-51's. F-100s and F-105's. Great days ! Larry.
GReat E!! You?? And now I gotta go get ready for that four letter word....WORK! He he he!! See ya'll later!!
I pledge allegiance to the Flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic, for which it stands;
one nation UNDER GOD,
indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
Thank you members of the Armed forces for my Freedom.
Story by Leo K. Thorness
You've probably seen the bumper sticker. It depicts an American flag, accompanied by the words "These colors don't run."
I'm always glad to see this, because it reminds me of an incident from my confinement in North Vietnam at the Hao Lo prisoner of war camp, or the "Hanoi Hilton," as it became known.
Then a major in the U.S. Air Force, I had been captured and was imprisoned from 1967 to 1973. Our treatment had frequently been brutal.
After three years, however, the beatings and torture became less frequent. During the last year, we were allowed outside most days for a couple of minutes to bathe. We showered by drawing water from a concrete tank with a homemade bucket.
One day as we all stood by the tank, stripped of our clothes, a young Navy pilot named Mike Christian found the remnants of a handkerchief in a gutter that ran under the prison wall.
Mike managed to sneak the grimy rag into our cell and began fashioning it into a flag.
Over time we all loaned him a little soap, and he spent days cleaning the material. We helped by scrounging and stealing bits and pieces of anything he could use.
At night, under his mosquito net, Mike worked on the flag. He made red and blue from ground-up roof tiles and tiny amounts of ink, and painted the colors onto the cloth with watery rice glue. Using thread from his own blanket and a homemade bamboo needle, he sewed on stars.
Early in the morning a few days later, when the guards were not alert, he whispered loudly from the back of our cell, "Hey gang, look here."
He proudly held up this tattered piece of cloth, waving it as if in a breeze. If you used your imagination, you could tell it was supposed to be an American flag.
When he raised that smudgy fabric, we automatically stood straight and saluted, our chests puffing out, and more than a few eyes had tears.
About once a week the guards would strip us, run us outside and go through our clothing. During one of those shakedowns, they found Mike's flag. We all knew what would happen.
That night they came for him. They opened the cell door and pulled Mike out. We could hear the beginning of the torture before they even had him in the torture cell. They beat him most of the night.
About daylight they pushed what was left of him back through the cell door. He was badly broken. Even his voice was gone.
Within two weeks, despite the danger, Mike scrounged another piece of cloth and began another flag.
The Stars and Stripes, our national symbol, was worth the sacrifice to him.
Now, whenever I see the flag, I think of Mike and the morning he first waved that tattered emblem of a nation. It was then, thousands of miles from home, in a lonely prison cell, that he showed us what it is to be truly free.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1153042/posts
Doing just fine, Star.
Oh No!!! 
MINE
MINE
MINE
MINE
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