Flags in Demand at Pearl Harbor Site
Flags that have flown over the USS Arizona coveted since 9/11.
HONOLULU, HAWAII-In the wake of September 11, 2001, American flags sprouted everywhere-on hats and T-shirts, car windows, front porches, and freeway overpasses. The surge of patriotism also fueled a demand for flags associated with a previous Day of Infamy, December 7, 1941.
The 17-by-11-foot garrison flags that fly over the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, tattered by the trade winds after six weeks of 24-hour duty, were routinely given to a local Boy Scout troop for proper disposal by burning. But the inevitable comparison between the terrorist attacks and the assault on Pearl Harbor 60 years earlier prompted the Navy and the National Park Service to send New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani the flag that flew over the Arizona on September 11.
"It suddenly dawned on me that these old flags had an emotional value that went far beyond most flags," said Skip Wheeler, park ranger at the USS Arizona Memorial. He created a certificate of authenticity signed by the park superintendent that verifies the dates a particular flag flew over the USS Arizona.
When a group of California firefighters presented one of the flags to the lone survivor of a unit of New York firefighters who had been at the World Trade Center on September 11, news of the flags spread quickly and requests began pouring in, said Wheeler. So far, he has donated 24 flags, and six more are promised.
They have been sent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to the New York City Police Museum in honor of 23 officers who died during the attacks, and to the Staten Island Advance to help raise money to buy Christmas presents for Staten Island children who lost parents on September 11. Other recipients include several World War II veterans groups, including two units of Japanese- Americans from Hawaii, Pearl Harbor survivors in Georgia and South Dakota who hope to raise funds to create World War II memorials, the captain and crew of the USS Pearl Harbor in San Diego, and the firefighters of the State of Ohio.
Among those slated to receive flags are the team that rebuilt the Pentagon after the September 11 attack, the planned National Park Service memorial to Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania that fateful day, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial, dedicated to the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. The flag that flies over the USS Arizona on December 7, 2003, will likely go to the new World War II Memorial on the National Mall, said Wheeler.
"These flags have given the crew of the Arizona [who remain entombed in the hulk of the ship at Pearl Harbor] the ability to reach out to the country in its time of need," said Wheeler.
Since September 11, he added, Americans have clearly felt the need to connect with the men of the Arizona. Though travel to Hawaii has declined, 2002 visitation to the USS Arizona Memorial was the third highest ever, and the pace continues this year.
"September 11 has given younger people a whole new perspective on Pearl Harbor," said Wheeler. "Now they can understand what their grandparents experienced on December 7, 1941. That was their grandparents' 9/11."
-Phyllis McIntosh
